Category: NOVENAS

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney – Day Five– 30 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney

DAY FIVE – We pray for the habit of FREQUENT CONFESSIONS

O Holy Priest of Ars,
you knew how important was a good confession for the Christian life.
It was to procure the happy fruits of millions of souls
that you agreed to be in an uncomfortable confessional,
which was like a prison, up to 15 to 16 hours on certain days.
I will try to develop the habit of frequent confession,
to prepare properly each time
and to have always regret for my sins,
so that the grace of final perseverance
but also the sanctification of my soul will be assured.
Ask this grace for me. Holy Priest of Ars,
I have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for me during this novena especially for …
(mention silently your special intentions).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

 

DAY FIVE NOVENA TO ST JOHN VIANNEY - 30 JULY - HABIT OF FREQUENT CONFESSION

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA in Honour of and preparation for, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord – Day Two – 29 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA Transfiguration of our Lord – Day Two – 29 July

Explanation of this Novena here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/announcing-a-novena-in-honour-of-the-transfiguration-of-our-lord/

The Revelation of Christ’s Divine Glory

Second Day: My Own Transfiguration
Sometimes during the intense moments of our lives, we ask ourselves, in a very special way, what we ought to do, what our vocation and responsibility is.   These are moments when we are touched by the pain of injustice around us and with our strength, we share something in the hope that things may change.   This is the time when we experience the presence of God, who leads us toward the future full of hope.   This is the moment when God speaks to us and we become so enlightened as to understand Him.   This is how Jesus felt when He was transfigured in the Mountain of Tabor.

Let us Pray:

God you have scattered the darkness with Your light
and have poured Your light into our hearts
so that we might look upon the radiant face of Jesus Christ.
Nourish in us the desire to contemplate Your beloved Son
and in that contemplation to long to be like Him. Amen

DAY TWO - TRANSFIGURATION NOVENA

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney – Day Four – 29 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney

DAY FOUR – We pray for A HORROR OF SIN

Saint John Mary Baptist Vianney,
you were so adamant against sin,
yet so sympathetic and so ready to welcome the sinner.
I come to you today as if you were still alive,
as if I were kneeling at your feet
and you could hear me.
Bend towards me, listen to the repentant confidence
for the weaknesses and miserable deeds of mine.
Priest of the Lord, inexhaustible Confessor,
obtain for me the horror for sin.
You wanted us First to avoid the occasion of sin.
I want to take your advice and make the resolution to break bad habits
and to avoid the dangerous occasions of sin.
Help me today to examine my conscience.
Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for me during this novena especially for…
(mention silently your special intentions).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

DAY FOUR - NOVENA TO ST JOHN VIANNEY

Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA in Honour of and preparation for, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord – Day One – 28 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA  Transfiguration of our Lord – Day One – 28 July

Explanation of this Novena here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/announcing-a-novena-in-honour-of-the-transfiguration-of-our-lord/

The Revelation of Christ’s Divine Glory

First Day: Today is a Joyful Day
One day Jesus left Nazareth, His hometown and lived in Capernaum.   During that time it was a big city, not distant form Nazareth.   The decision entailed a gesture of farewell to His mother and His town mates.   Everyone making a decision says goodbye and gives up something.   A vocation of service always signifies some form of sacrifice.   It is the price of the Kingdom of God.

Mary, our mother, like her son, was growing in her faith, her understanding of Jesus’s vocation and her acceptance of the mission God destined for her son.   For her, this process meant uncertainties, sufferings, fears and anxieties, just as for many mothers who share with their son’s commitment to fight for justice and risk their lives.

Let us Pray:

God of life and glory, Your son was revealed in splendour before He suffered death upon the cross;  grant that we, beholding His majesty, may be strengthened to follow Him and be changed into His likeness from glory to glory;   for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen

DAY ONE - TRANSFIGURATION NOVENA 28 JULY

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney – Day Three – 28 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney

DAY THREE – We pray for TRUE LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR

day three - novena to st john vianney - true love of neighbour 28 july

Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney
because of your love of God you showed great charity towards your neighbour.
You could not preach on the Love of God without burning tears of love.
During your last years, it seemed as though you could not talk about any thing else
or live for anything else.
Thus you sacrificed yourself to your neighbour by consoling, absolving and sanctifying them
to the limits of your strength.
Your charity inspires me to greater love of God,
a love which is shown more by acts then by words.
Help me to love my neighbour generously as Christ loves them.
Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for me during this novena especially for …
(mention silently your special intentions).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, Uncategorized

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA to ST DOMINIC for the Virtues of Faith, Purity, Charity and especially for all our Lapsed Catholic family and friends- Beginning 30 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA to ST DOMINIC
for the Virtues of Faith, Purity, Charity
and especially for all our Lapsed Catholic family and friends.

The Novena to St Dominic begins on Sunday 30 July.

We pray to Saint Dominic, to ask the great preacher against heresy
and the founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans)
to pray for us, that we may be granted the virtues that he embodied:
a desire to practice penance, through fasting and mortification;
purity of body and soul, in a world that values neither;
the theological virtue of faith, that we may live our lives,
in love of the Lord and in prayer;  and charity toward all men,
especially those who have fallen away from the True Faith
and those who have fallen into lives of sin.

St Dominic, please pray for us!

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA TO ST DOMINIC FOR FALLEN CATHOLICS

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney – Day Two – 27 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney

DAY TWO – We pray for COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD

DAY TWO - NOVENA TO ST JOHN VIANNEY - COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD - 27 JULY

Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney,
what confidence the people had in your prayers!
You could not leave your old rectory or your humble church
without being surrounded by imploring souls,
who appealed to you as they would have appealed to Jesus Himself
during His earthly life.
And you, O good Saint, gave them hope by your words,
which were full of love for God.
You, who had always counted entirely on the heart of God,
obtain for me a deep filial trust in His Providence.
As the hope of divine goods fills my heart,
give me courage and help me to always obey the Commandments of God.
Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for me during this novena especially for …
(mention silently your special intentions).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney – Day One – 26 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena In Honour of Saint John Marie Vianney 

Day One – 26 July – We pray for an ARDENT FAITH

DAY ONE - NOVENA ST JOHN VIANNEY FOR AN ARDENT FAITH

Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney you were born of a deeply religious mother;  from her you received the Holy Faith;  you learned to love God and to pray.   At a young age, you were seen kneeling in the front of the statue of Mary.   Your soul was supernaturally carried towards the things on High.

Despite the high cost, you answered your vocation!
Against many obstacles and contradictions, you had to fight and suffer to become the perfect priest which you became.   But your deep spirit of faith supported you in all these battles.

0 Great Saint you know the desire of my soul;  I would like to serve God better;  from Him I have received so many good things.

For this, obtain for me more courage and especially the depth of an ardent faith.

Many of my thoughts, words and actions are useless for my sanctification and for my salvation because this supernatural spirit does not stir up my life.

Help me to be better in the future.
Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession.

Pray for me during this novena especially for …

(mention silently your special intentions).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA in Honour of the Transfiguration of our Lord

Posted on by AnaStpaul

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA
in Honour of
the Transfiguration of our Lord

BEGINNING – 28 JULY

The Revelation of Christ’s Divine Glory

The feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ celebrates the revelation of Christ’s divine glory on Mount Tabor in Galilee (Matthew 17:1-6; Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:28-36).   After revealing to His disciples that He would be put to death in Jerusalem (Matthew 16:21), Christ, along with Saints Peter, James, and John, went up the mountain. There, Saint Matthew writes, “he was transfigured before them.

And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow.”

QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
Date: 6 August

THE HISTORY OF THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
The brightness with which He shone on Mount Tabor was not something added to Christ but the manifestation of His true divine nature and a forecast of His Resurrection.   For Peter, James and John, it was also a glimpse of the glories of Heaven and of the resurrected body promised to all Christians.

When Christ was transfigured, two others appeared with Him:  Moses, representing the Old Testament Law, and Elijah, representing the prophets. Thus Christ, Who stood between the two and spoke with them, appeared to the disciples as the fulfillment of both the Law and the prophets.

At Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, the voice of God the Father was heard to proclaim that “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). During the Transfiguration, God the Father pronounced the same words (Matthew 17:5).

Despite the importance of this event, the Feast of the Transfiguration was not among the earliest of feasts celebrated by Christians.   It was first celebrated in Asia starting in the fourth or fifth century and spread throughout the Christian East in the centuries following.   The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that it wasn’t commonly celebrated in the West until the tenth century. Pope Callixtus III elevated the Transfiguration to a feast of the universal Church and established August 6 as the date of its celebration.

The Novena is often prayed as a Community after Benediction for 9 days, however, if our parish is not offering this Novena, we too can pray it on our own, to assist in preparing for this great revelation of our Lord and to help us obtain the great realisation and joy which Peter, James and John experienced.

Let us Pray!

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA in honour of the Transifiguration of our lord

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA to St BENEDICT – DAY NINE – 10 JULY

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NOVENA to St BENEDICT – DAY NINE – 10 JULY

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

As there is a harsh and evil zeal which separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a virtuous zeal which separates from vice and leads to God and life everlasting.

Let the monks, therefore, practice this zeal with most ardent love;  namely, that in honour they forerun one another (cf Rom 12:10).   Let them bear their infirmities, whether of body or mind, with the utmost patience;  let them vie with one another in obedience.   Let no one follow what he thinks useful to himself but rather to another.   Let them practice fraternal charity with a chaste love.

Let them fear God and love their Abbot with sincere and humble affection; let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ and my He lead us all together to life everlasting. (Holy Rule 72)

day nine - novena st benedict

LET US PRAY – DAY NINE:

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbor.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA to ST BENEDICT – DAY EIGHT – 9 JULY

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NOVENA to ST BENEDICT – DAY EIGHT – 9 JULY

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

If we do not venture to approach men who are in power, except with humility and reverence, when we wish to ask a favour, how much must we beseech the Lord God of all things with all humility and purity of devotion?   And let us be assured that it is not in many words, but in the purity of heart and tears of compunction that we are heard.   For this reason prayer ought to be short and pure, unless, perhaps it is lengthened by the inspiration of divine grace.   At the community exercises, however, let the prayer always be short, and the sign having been given by the Superior, let all rise together. (Holy Rule 20)

day eight - novena st benedict

LET US PRAY – DAY EIGHT:

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena to St Benedict – Day Seven – 8 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena to St Benedict – Day Seven – 8 July

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

We believe that God is present everywhere and that the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the bad in every place (cf Prov 15:3).   Let us firmly believe this, especially when we take part in the Work of God.   Let us, therefore, always be mindful of what the Prophet says, “Serve the Lord with fear” (Ps 2:11).   And again, “Sing wisely” (Ps 46[47]:8).   And, “I will sing praise to Thee in the sight of the angels” (Ps 137[138]:1).   Therefore, let us consider how it becomes us to behave in the sight of God and His angels and let us so stand to sing, that our mind may be in harmony with our voice. (Holy Rule 19)

day seven novena st benedict

LET US PRAY: Day Seven

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena to St. Benedict Day Six – 7 July 

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena to St. Benedict Day Six – 7 July

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

The twelfth degree of humility is, when a monk is not only humble of heart but always let it appear also in his whole exterior to all that see him; … and always saying to himself in his heart what the publican in the Gospel said, with his eyes fixed on the ground: “Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to lift up mine eyes to heaven” (Lk 18:13)…

Having, therefore, ascended all these degrees of humility, the monk will presently arrive at that love of God, which being perfect, cast out fear (1 Jn 4:18).   In virtue of this love all things which at first he observed not without fear, he will now begin to keep without any effort and as it were, naturally by force of habit, no longer from the fear of hell, but from the love of Christ, from the very habit of good and the pleasure in virtue.   May the Lord be pleased to manifest all this by His Holy Spirit in His labourer now cleansed from vice and sin. (Holy Rule 7)

day six novena st benedict

LET US PRAY:  DAY SIX

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena to St Benedict – Day Five – 6 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena to St Benedict – Day Five – 6 July

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

The second degree of humility is, when a man loves not his own will, nor is pleased to fulfill his own desires but by his deeds carries out that word of the Lord which says:  “I came not to do My own will but the will of Him that sent Me” (Jn 6:38).   It is likewise said:  “Self-will has its punishment but necessity wins the crown.”

The third degree of humility is, that for the love of God a man subject himself to a Superior in all obedience, imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says:  “He became obedient unto death” (Phil 2:8).

The fourth degree of humility is, that, if hard and distasteful things are commanded, even though injuries are inflicted, he accept them with patience and even temper and not grow weary or give up but hold out, as the Scripture says: “He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved” (Mt 10:22). (Holy Rule 7)

day five novena st benedict

LET US PRAY – DAY FIVE:

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

 

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

Novena to St Benedict – Day Four – 5 July

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena to St Benedict – Day Four – 5 July

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

The first degree of humility, then, is that a man always have the fear of God before his eyes (cf Ps 35[36]:2), shunning all forgetfulness and that he be ever mindful of all that God has commanded, that he always consider in his mind how those who despise God will burn in hell for their sins and that life everlasting is prepared for those who fear God.   And while he guards himself evermore against sin and vices of thought, word, deed and self-will, let him also hasten to cut off the desires of the flesh.

Let a man consider that God always sees him from Heaven, that the eye of God beholds his works everywhere and that the angels report them to Him every hour.   The Prophet tells us this when he shows God thus ever present in our thoughts, saying:  “The searcher of hearts and reins is God” (Ps 7:10)…Therefore, in order that he may always be on his guard against evil thoughts, let the humble brother always say in his heart:  “Then I shall be spotless before Him, if I shall keep myself from iniquity” (Ps 17[18]:24) . (Holy Rule 7)

day four novena st benedict

LET US PRAY – DAY FOUR:

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

 

 

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA to ST BENEDICT – DAY THREE – 4 JULY

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NOVENA to ST BENEDICT – DAY THREE – 4 JULY

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

Brothers, the Holy Scripture crys to us saying:  “Every one that exalts himself shall be humbled;  and he that humbles himself shall be exalted” (Lk 14:11; 18:14).   Since, therefore, it says this, it shows us that every exaltation is a kind of pride…

Hence, brethren, if we wish to reach the greatest height of humility and speedily to arrive at that heavenly exaltation to which ascent is made in the present life by humility, then, mounting by our actions, we must erect the ladder which appeared to Jacob in his dream, by means of which angels were shown to him ascending and descending (cf Gen 28:12). Without a doubt, we understand this ascending and descending to be nothing else but that we descend by pride and ascend by humility.   The erected ladder, however, is our life in the present world, which, if the heart is humble, is by the Lord lifted up to heaven.   For we say that our body and our soul are the two sides of this ladder;  and into these sides the divine calling has inserted various degrees of humility or discipline which we must mount.  (Holy Rule 7)

LET US PRAY – DAY THREE

day three - novena st benedict.jpg

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

NOVENA to ST BENEDICT DAY TWO – 3 JULY

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA to ST BENEDICT
DAY TWO – 3 JULY

In the Holy Rule, St. Benedict you have said:

What, dearest brothers, can be sweeter to us than this voice of the Lord inviting us?   See, in His loving kindness, the Lord shows us the way of life.   Therefore, having our loins girt with faith and the performance of good works, let us walk His ways under the guidance of the Gospel, that we may be found worthy of seeing Him who has called us to His kingdom (cf 1 Thes 2:12).

If we desire to dwell in the tabernacle of His kingdom, we cannot reach it in any way, unless we run to it by good works.   But let us ask the Lord with the Prophet, saying to Him:  “Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle, or who shall rest in Your holy hill” (Ps 14[15]:1)? . (Holy Rule 1)

DAY TWO NOVENA ST BENEDICT

LET US PRAY:  DAY TWO

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbor.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in NOVENAS

Novena to St Benedict – DAY ONE – 2 JULY

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Novena to St Benedict – DAY ONE – 2 JULY

St Benedict’s Patronages:
-Agricultural workers
-Cavers
-Civil engineers
-Coppersmiths
-Dying people
-Erysipelas
-Europe
-Farmers
-Fever
-Gall stones
-Heerdt (Germany)
-Heraldry and Officers of arms
-the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
-Inflammatory diseases
-Italian architects
-Kidney disease
-Monks
-Nettle rash
-Norcia, (Italy)
-People in religious orders
-Schoolchildren and students
-Servants who have broken their master’s belongings
-Speleologists
-Spelunkers
-Temptations
– Against poison
-Against witchcraft – To Read more about St Benedict go here:  https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/category/novenas/

In the Holy Rule, St Benedict you have said:

Listen, O my son, to the precepts of the master and incline the ear of your heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of your loving Father, that by the toil of obedience you may return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience you have gone away.

To You, therefore, my speech is now directed, who, giving up your own will, take up the strong and most excellent arms of obedience, to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King. (Holy Rule – Prologue)

day one novena to st benedict

LET US PRAY: DAY ONE

Glorious Saint Benedict,
sublime model of virtue, pure vessel of God’s grace!
Behold me humbly kneeling at your feet.
I implore you in your loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God.

To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me.
Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbour.
Inspire me to imitate you in all things.
May your blessing be with me always, so that I may see and serve Christ in others and work for His kingdom.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favours and graces which I need so much in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life.
Your heart was always full of love, compassion and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way.
You never dismissed without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to you.
I therefore invoke your powerful intercession, confident in the hope that you will hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favour I earnestly implore.

{mention your petition}

Help me, great Saint Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to run in the sweetness of His loving will and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

Amen.

O Holy Father, St. Benedict, pray for us.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS

ANNOUNCING A NOVENA TO ST BENEDICT of NURSIA – BEGINNING SUNDAY – 2 JULY

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ANNOUNCING A NOVENA TO ST BENEDICT of NURSIA –
BEGINNING SUNDAY – 2 JULY

Who Is St. Benedict?

St Benedict was born to a noble family around 480 A.D. in Nursia, in central Italy.   He lived a sequestered life for many years, leaving family and friends behind to live in a cave near the town of Subiaco.   St. Benedict chose to live a quiet life of prayer and devotion to God after disapproving of the immoral lifestyle he encountered while he attended school in Rome.   Even though he lived a life devoted to God, St. Benedict (like all of us) was constantly tempted by the devil.   St. Benedict was able to defeat the devil numerous times throughout his life, earning him the title of protector against evil spirits, temptation and witchcraft.    St Benedict also offers protection against being poisoned, infectious diseases, childbirth complications and destruction during storms and tempests.   He also obtains for sinners the grace of conversion.

St. Benedict’s Protection — A Lifetime of Defeating the Devil

Pope Gregory I, also known as St. Gregory the Great, detailed St. Benedict’s encounters with the devil as part of his four-part book series, The Dialogues.   St Gregory called him “a shining light to the world.”

The Rule of St. Benedict has been used by monasteries all throughout the West for centuries.   It champions listening to God’s word and doing His work through a life of prayer, temperance, charity, obedience, patience and humility.   The Rule was considered rigorous, yet not unbendingly so, when Benedict first introduced it in his writings.

Cardinal Ratzinger was thinking of him in part when he was elected Pope in 2005 and chose the name Benedict XVI!   As the Pope has said, may St. Benedict encourage us all (as he sought to do with his Rule and his life) to put Christ first in our thoughts and in our actions!

St Benedict we run to you for aid and intercession, please pray for us all!

announcing a novena to st benedict beginning 2 july

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY NINE –22 JUNE

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NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY NINE –22 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION IX.
The Faithful Heart of Jesus.

Oh, how faithful is the beautiful heart of Jesus towards those whom He calls to His love: He is faithful Who hath called you, Who also will perform.’ [1 Thess. v. 24].

The faithfulness of God gives us confidence to hope all things, although we deserve nothing.   If we have driven God from our heart, let us open the door to Him and He will immediately enter, according to the promise He has made:  If anyone open to Me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him. [Apoc. iii. 20].   If we wish for graces, let us ask for them of God, in the name of Jesus Christ and He has promised us that we shall obtain them: If you shall ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. [John xvi. 23].   If we are tempted, let us trust in His merits and He will not permit our enemies to strive with us beyond our strength:  God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able. [1 Cor. x. 13].

Oh, how much better it is to have to do with God than with men!   How often do men promise and then fail, either because they tell lies in making their promises, or because, after having made the promise, they change their minds:  God is not as man, says the Holy Spirit, that He should lie; or as the Son of Man, that He should be changed. [Num. xxiii. 19].   God cannot be unfaithful to His promises, because, being Truth itself, He cannot lie; nor can He change His mind, because all that He wills is just and right.    He has promised to receive all that come to Him, to give help to him that asks it, to love him that loves Him;  and shall He then not do it? Hath He said, then, and will He not do it? [Ibid.].

Oh, that we were as faithful with God as He is with us!   Oh, how often have we, in times past, promised Him to be His, to serve Him and love Him and then have betrayed Him, and, renouncing His service, have sold ourselves as slaves to the devil!   Oh, let us beseech Him to give us strength to be faithful to Him for the future!  Oh, how blessed shall we be if we are faithful to Jesus Christ in the few things that He commands us to do; He will, indeed, be faithful in remunerating us with infinitely great rewards and He will declare to us what He has promised to His faithful servants:  Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. [Matt. xxv. 21].

DAY NINE - NOVENA SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY NINE

Oh, that I had been as faithful towards You, my dearest Redeemer,
as You have been faithful to me.
Whenever I have opened my heart to You,
You have entered in, to forgive me and to receive me into Your favour.
Whenever I have called You, You have hastened to my assistance.
You have been faithfu1 with me
but I have been exceedingly unfaithful towards You.
I have promised You my love and then have many times refused it to You,
as if You, my God, Who has created and redeemed me,
were less worthy of being loved than Your creatures
and those miserable pleasures for which I have forsaken You.
Forgive me, O my Jesus. I know my ingratitude and abhor it.
I know that You are infinite goodness;
Who deserves an infinite love, especially from me,
whom You have so much loved,
even after all the offences I have committed against You.
Ah, no, my Love, have pity on me;
suffer me not to forsake You again
and then to damn myself, as I should deserve, to Hell.
O loving and faithful heart of Jesus, inflame, I beseech You, my miserable heart,
so that it may burn with love for You, My Jesus.
It seems to me that now I love You but I love You but little.
Make me love You exceedingly
and remain faithful to You until death.
I ask of You this grace, together with that of always praying to You for it.
Grant that I may die, rather than ever betray You again.

O Mary, my Mother, help me to be faithful to your Son. Amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY EIGHT –21 JUNE

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NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY EIGHT –21 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION VIII.
The Despised Heart of Jesus.

There is not a greater sorrow for a heart that loves, than to see its love despised: and so much the more when the proofs given of this love have been great, and, on the other hand, the ingratitude great.

If every human being were to renounce all his goods and to go and live in the desert, to feed on herbs, to sleep on the bare earth, to macerate himself with penances and at last give himself up to be murdered for Christ’s sake, what recompense could he render for the sufferings, the Blood, the life that this great Son of God has given for his sake?   If we were to sacrifice ourselves every moment unto death, we should certainly not recompense in the smallest degree the love that Jesus Christ has shown us, by giving Himself to us in the most Holy Sacrament.   Only conceive that God should conceal Himself under the species of bread to become the food of one of His creatures!

But, O my God, what recompense and gratitude do men render to Jesus Christ?   What but ill-treatment, contempt of His laws and His maxims, —– injuries such as they would not commit towards their enemy, or their slave, or the greatest villain upon earth.   And can we think of all these injuries which Jesus Christ has received and still receives every day and not feel sorrow for them?   And not endeavour, by our love, to recompense the infinite love of His Divine heart, which remains in the most Holy Sacrament, inflamed with the same love towards us and anxious to communicate every good gift to us and to give Himself entirely to us, ever ready to receive us into His heart whenever we go to Him?   Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out. [John vi. 37].

We have been accustomed to hear of the Creation, Incarnation, Redemption, of Jesus born in a stable, of Jesus dead on the Cross. O my God, if we knew that another man had conferred on us any of these benefits, we could not help loving him.   It seems that God alone has, to to say, this bad luck with men, that, though He has done His utmost to make them love Him, yet He cannot attain this end, and, instead of being loved, He sees Himself despised and neglected. All this arises from the forgetfulness of men of the love of God.

DAY EIGHT - NOVENA SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY EIGHT

O Heart of Jesus, abyss of mercy and love,
how is it that, at the sight of the goodness You hast shown me and of my ingratitude, I do not die of sorrow? You, O mv Saviour, after having given me my being,
have given me all Your Blood and Your life, giving Yourself up for my sake, to ignominy and death;
and, not content with this,
You have invented the mode of sacrificing Yourself every day for me in the Holy Eucharist,
not refusing to expose Yourself to the injuries which You receive, and which You foresaw,
in this Sacrament of love.
O my God, how can I see myself so ungrateful to You without dying with contrition!
O Lord, put an end, I pray You, to my ingratitude,
by wounding my heart with Your love and making me entirely Yours.
Remember the Blood and the tears that You shed for me, and forgive me.
Oh, let not all Your sufferings be lost upon me.
But though You have seen how ungrateful and unworthy of Your love I have been,
yet You didst not cease to love me even when I did not love You.
Grant that this day may be the day of my thorough conversion;
so that I may begin to love You and may never cease to love You, my sovereign good.
Make me die in everything to myself,
in order that I may live only for You and that I may always burn with Your love.

O Mary, your heart was the blessed altar
that was always on fire with Divine love:
my dearest Mother, make me like you;
obtain this from your Son,
Who delights in honouring and pleasing you,
by denying you nothing that you ask of Him. Amen

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY SEVEN –20 JUNE

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NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY SEVEN –20 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION VII.
The Grateful Heart of Jesus.

The heart of Jesus is so grateful, that it cannot behold the most trifling works done for the love of Him —–our smallest word spoken for His glory, a single good thought directed towards pleasing Him—–without giving to each its own reward. He is besides so grateful, that He always returns a hundredfold for one: You shall receive a hundredfold.
[Matt. xix. 29] Men, when they are grateful, and recompense any benefit done to them, recompense it only once; they, as it were, divest themselves of all the obligation, and then they think no more of it. Jesus Christ does not do thus. with us; He not only recompenses a hundredfold in this life every good action that we perform to please Him, but in the next life He recompenses it an infinite number of times throughout eternity. And who will be so negligent as not to do as much as he can to please this most grateful heart?

But, O my God, how do men try to please Jesus Christ? Or rather, I will say, how can we be so ungrateful towards this our Saviour? If He had only shed a single drop of Blood, or one tear alone for our salvation, yet we should be under infinite obligation to Him; because this drop and this tear would have been of infinite value in the sight of God towards obtaining for us every grace. But Jesus would employ for us every moment of His life. He has given us all His merits, all His sufferings, all His ignominies, all His Blood, and His life; so that we are under, not one, but infinite, obligations to love Him.

But alas! we are grateful even towards animals: if a little dog shows us any sign of affection, it seems to constrain us to love it. How, then, can we be so ungrateful towards God? It seems as if the benefits of God towards men change their nature, and become ill-usage; for, instead of gratitude and love, they obtain nothing but offences and injuries. Do Thou, O Lord, enlighten these ungrateful ones, to know the love that Thou bearest them.

DAY SEVEN - NOVENA SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY SEVEN

O my beloved Jesus,
behold at Your feet an ungrateful sinner.
I have been grateful indeed towards creatures
but to You, alone I have been ungrateful, Who died fur me
and have done the utmost to oblige me to love You.
My dearest Jesus, I have in times past offended You
but now I love You more than everything —–more than myself.
Tell me what You would have me to do;
for I am ready to do everything with Your help.
I believe that for my sake You dost remain in the Blessed Sacrament;
I thank You for it, O my love.
Oh, permit me not to be ungrateful in future for so many benefits and proofs of Your love.
Oh, bind me, unite me to Your heart
and permit me not, during the years that remain to me,
to offend You or grieve You any more.
O my Jesus, it is time that I should love You now.
Oh, that those years that I have lost would return!
But they will return no more
and the life that remains for me may be short;
but whether it be short or long, my God, I desire to spend it all in loving You,
my sovereign good, Who deserves an eternal and infinite love.

O Mary, my Mother, let me never again be ungrateful to your Son. Pray to Jesus for me. Amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY SIX – 19 JUNE

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NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY SIX – 19 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION VI.
The Generous Heart of Jesus.

It is the characteristic of good-hearted people to desire to make everybody happy and especially those most distressed and afflicted.   But who can ever find one who has a better heart than Jesus Christ?   He is infinite goodness and has therefore a sovereign desire to communicate to us His riches:   With Me are riches, that I may enrich them that love Me. [Prov. viii. 18, 21]

He for this purpose made Himself poor, as the Apostle says, that He might make us rich: He became poor for your sakes, that through His poverty you might be rich. [2 Cor. viii. 9].   For this purpose also He chose to remain with us in the most Holy Sacrament, where He remains constantly with His hands full of graces, to dispense them to those who come to visit Him.   For this reason also He gives Himself wholly to us in Holy Communion, giving us to understand from this that He cannot refuse us any good gifts, since He even gives Himself entirely to us:  How hath He not also, with Him, given us all things? [Rom. viii. 32]

For in the heart of Jesus we receive every good, every grace that we desire: In all things you are made rich in Christ. . . so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace. [1 Cor. 1. 5, 7].   And we must understand that we are debtors to the heart of Jesus for all the graces we have received —–graces of redemption, of vocation, of light, of pardon, the grace to resist temptations and to bear patiently with contradictions;  for without His assistance we could not do anything good:  Without Me you can do nothing. [John xv. 5].   And if hitherto, says our Saviour, you have not received more graces, do not complain of Me, but blame yourself, who has neglected to seek them of Me:   Hitherto you have not asked anything; . . . ask, and you shall receive. [John xvi. 24].   Oh, how rich and liberal is the heart of Jesus towards everyone that has recourse to Him!   Rich unto all that call upon Him. [Rom. x. 12].   Oh, what great mercies do those souls receive who are earnest in asking help of Jesus Christ. David said, For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous to all who call upon Thee. [Ps. lxxxv. 5].   Let us therefore always go to this heart, and ask with confidence, and we shall obtain all we want.

DAY SIX NOVENA SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY SIX

Ah, my Jesus,
You have not refused to give me Your Blood and Your life
and shall I refuse to give You my miserable heart?
No, my dearest Redeemer, I offer it entirely to You.
I give You all my will – will You accept it and dispose of it at Your pleasure?
I can do nothing and have nothing
but I have this heart which You have given me
and of which no one can deprive me.
I may be deprived of my goods, my blood, my life but not of my heart.
With this heart I can love You;
with this heart I will love You.
I beseech You, O my God, teach me a perfect forgetfulness of myself.
I feel in myself a determination to please You
but in order to put my resolve iinto execution,
I expect and implore help from You.
It depends on You, O loving heart of Jesus,
to make my poor heart entirely Yours.
Oh, grant that my heart may be all on fire with the love of You,
even as Yours is on fire with the love of me.
Grant that my will may be entirely united to Yours
and from this day forth Your holy will may be the rule of all my actions,
of all my thoughts and of all my desires.
I trust, O my Saviour, that You will not refuse me Your grace,
to fulfill this resolution which I now make prostrate at Your feet,
to receive with submission whatever You may ordain for me, as well in life, as in death.

Blessed art you, O Immaculate Mary,
who had your heart always and entirely united to the heart of Jesus;
obtain for me, O my Mother,
that in future I may wish and desire that which Jesus wills and you will. Amen

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY FIVE – 18 JUNE

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NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY FIVE – 18 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguo
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 in “THE HOLY EUCHARIST”

MEDITATION V.
The Compassionate Heart of Jesus.

Where shall we ever find a heart more compassionate or tender than the heart of Jesus, or one that had a greater feeling for our miseries?

This pity induced Him to descend from Heaven to this earth;  it made Him say that He was that good shepherd Who came to give His life to save His sheep.   In order to obtain the pardon of our sins, He would not spare Himself but would sacrifice Himself on the Cross, that by His sufferings He might satisfy for the chastisement that we have deserved. This pity and compassion makes Him say even now:   Why will ye die, O house of Israel? return ye, and live. [Ezek. xviii. 31].  O men, He says, my poor children, why will you damn yourselves by flying from Me?   Do you not see that by separating yourselves from Me you are hastening to eternal death?   I desire not to see you lost;  do not despair; as often as you wish to return, return and you shall recover your life:  Return, and live.

This compassion even makes Him say that He is that loving Father Who, though He sees Himself despised by His son, yet, if that son returns a penitent, He cannot reject him  but embraces him tenderly and forgets all the injuries He has received: I will not remember all his iniquities. [Ibid. 22].  It is not thus that men behave;  for though they may forgive, yet they nevertheless retain the remembrance of the offence received and feel inclined to revenge themselves and even if they do not revenge themselves, because they fear God, at least they always feel a great repugnance against conversing and entertaining themselves with those persons who have vilified them.

O my Jesus, You pardon the penitent sinners and never refuse in this world to give them everything in Holy Communion during their life and everything in the other world, even in Heaven, with eternal glory, without retaining the slightest repugnance towards being united to the soul that has offended You, for all eternity.   Where, then, is there to be found a heart so amiable and compassionate as Yours, O my dearest Saviour?

DAY FIVE NOVENA TO THE SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY FIVE

O compassionate heart of my Jesus, have pity on me:
“Most sweet Jesus, have mercy on me.”
I say so now and beseech You to give me the grace always to say to You,
“Most sweet Jesus, have mercy on me.”
Even before I offended You, O my Redeemer,
I certainly did not deserve any of the favours You bestowed upon me.
You created me,
You have given me so much light and knowledge
and all without any merit of mine.
But after I had offended You. I not only did not deserve Your favour
but I deserved to be forsaken by You and cast into Hell.
Your compassion has made You wait for me
and preserve my life even when I had offended You.
Your compassion has enlightened me and offered me pardon;
it has given me sorrow for my sins and the desire of loving You
and now I hope from Your mercy to remain always in Your grace.
O my Jesus Your mercy which I implore of You
is that You would grant me light
and strength to be no longer ungrateful towards You.
No, my Jesus; I love You and I will always love You
and this is the mercy which I hope for and seek from You
“Permit me not to be separated from You, permit me not to be separated from You.”

And I beseech you also, O Mary my Mother,
help me not to be ever again separated from my God.
Amen

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY FOUR – 17 JUNE

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY FOUR – 17 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION IV.
The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus.

It is impossible to consider how afflicted the heart of Jesus was for love of us and not to pity Him.   He Himself tells us that His heart was overwhelmed with such such sorrow, that this alone would have sufficed to take His life away and to make Him die of pure grief, if the virtue of His Divinity had not, by a miracle, prevented His death:  My soul is sorrowful even unto death. [Mark xiv. 34]

The principal sorrow which afflicted the heart of Jesus so much was not the sight of the torments and infamy which men were preparing for Him but the sight of their ingratitude towards.   His immense love.   He distinctly foresaw all the sins which we should commit after all His sufferings and such a bitter and ignominious death.   He foresaw, especially, the horrible insults which men would offer to His adorable heart, Which He has left us in the Most Holy Sacrament as a proof of His affection.   O my God, what affronts has not Jesus Christ received from men in this Sacrament of love?   One has trampled Him under foot, another has thrown Him into the gutters, others have availed themselves of Him to pay homage to the devil!

And yet the sight of all these insults did not prevent Him from leaving us this great pledge of His love.   He has a sovereign hatred of sin;  but still it seems as if His love towards us had overcome the hatred He bore to sin, since He was content to permit these sacrileges, rather than to deprive the souls that love Him of this Divine food.   Shall not all this suffice to make us love a heart that has loved us so much?

Has not Jesus Christ done enough to deserve our love?   Ungrateful that we are, shall we still leave Jesus forsaken on the altar, as the majority of men do?   And shall we not unite ourselves to those few souls who acknowledge Him and melt with love more even than the torches melt away which burn round the ciborium?   The heart of Jesus remains there, burning with love for us;  and shall we not, in His Presence, burn with love for Jesus?

DAY FOUR - 17 JUNE - SACRED HEART NOVENA

LET US PRAY – DAY FOUR

My adorable and dearest Jesus,
behold at Your feet one who has caused
so much sorrow to Your amiable Heart.
O my God, how could I grieve this Heart,
Which has loved me so much
and has spared nothing to make Itself loved by me?
But console Yourself, I will say, O my Saviour,
for my heart having been wounded, through Your grace,
with Your most holy love, feels now so much regret
for the offences I have committed against You,
that it would die of sorrow.
Oh; who will give me, my Jesus,
that sorrow for my sins which You felt for them in Your life!
Eternal Father, I offer You the sorrow
and abhorrence Your Son felt for my sins;
and, for His sake, I beseech You to give me so great a sorrow
for the offences I have committed against You,
that I may lead an afflicted and sorrowful life
at the thought of having once despised Your love.
And You, O my Jesus, do You give me, from this day forth,
such a horror of sin, that I may abhor even the lightest faults,
considering that they displease You,
Who does not deserve to be offended much or little,
but deserves an infinite love.
My beloved Lord, I now detest everything that displeases You
and in future I will love only You
and that which You love.
Oh, help me, give me the strength,
give me the grace to invoke Youo constantly, O my Jesus
and always to repeat to You this petition:

My Jesus, give me Your love. give me Your love, give me Your love.

And you, most holy Mary,
obtain for me the grace to pray to you continually
and to say to you, O my Mother, make me love Jesus Christ.
Amen

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY THREE – 16 JUNE

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY THREE – 16 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION III.
The Heart of Jesus Christ Panting to be Loved.

Jesus has no need of us; He is equally happy, equally rich, equally powerful with or without our love; and yet, as St. Thomas says, [Opusc. 63, c. 7] He loves us so, that He desires our love as much as if man was His God, and His felicity depended on that of man. This filled holy Job with astonishment: What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him or why dost Thou set Thy heart upon him? [Job vii. 17]

What! Can God desire or ask with such eagerness for the love of a worm? It would have been a great favour if God had only permitted us to love Him. If a vassal were to say to his king, “Sire, I love you,” he would be considered impertinent. But what would one say if the king were to tell his vassal, “I desire you to love me”? The princes of the earth do not humble themselves to this; but Jesus, Who is the King of Heaven, is He Who with so much earnestness demands our love: Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. [Matt. xxii. 37] So pressingly does He ask for our heart: My son, give Me thy heart. [Prov. xxiii. 26] And if He is driven from a soul, He does not depart but He stands outside of the door of the heart and He calls and knocks to be let in: I stand at the gate and knock. [Apoc. iii. 20] And He beseeches her to open to Him, calling her sister and spouse: Open to Me, My sister, My love. [Cant. v. 2] In short, He takes a delight in being loved by us, and is quite consoled when a soul says to Him, and repeats often, “My God, my God, I love Thee.”

All this is the effect of the great love He bears us. He who loves necessarily desires to be loved. The heart requires the heart; love seeks love: “Why does God love, but that He might be loved Himself,” [In Cant. s. 83] said St. Bernard; and God Himself first said, What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God, . . . and love Him? [Deut. x. 12] Therefore He tells us that He is that Shepherd Who, having found the lost sheep, calls all the others to rejoice with Him: Rejoice with Me, because I have found My sheep that was lost. [Luke xv. 6] He tells us that He is that Father Who, when His lost son returns and throws himself at His feet, not only forgives him, but embraces him tenderly. He tells us that he that loves Him not is condemned to death: He that loveth not abideth in death. [l John iii. 14] And, on the contrary, that He takes him that loves Him and keeps possession of him: He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him. John iv. 16] Oh, will not such invitations, such entreaties, such threats, and such promises move us to love God, Who so much desires to be loved by us?

DAY THREE - NOVENA SACRED HEART 16 JUNE

LET US PRAY – DAY THREE

My dearest Redeemer,
I will say to You, with St. Augustine,
You command me to love You
and threaten me with Hell if I do not love You;
but what more dreadful Hell, what greater misfortune,
can happen to me than to be deprived of Your love!
If, therefore, You desire to frighten me,
You should threaten me only that I should live without loving You;
for this threat alone will frighten me more than a thousand hells.
If, in the midst of the flames of Hell, the damned could burn with Your love,
O my God, Hell itself would become a paradise;
and if, on the contrary, the blessed in Heaven could not love You,
Paradise would become hell. Thus St. Augustine expresses himself.

I see, indeed, my dearest Lord,
that I, on account of my sins, did deserve to be forsaken by Your grace
and at the same time condemned to be incapable of loving You;
but still I understand that You continue to command me to love You
and I also feel within me a great desire to love You.
This my desire is a gift of Your grace and it comes from You.
Oh, give me also the strength necessary to put it into execution
and make me, from this day forth, say to You earnestly
and from the bottom of my heart
and to repeat to You always,
“My God, I love You, I love You, I love You.”
You desire my love; I also desire Yours.
Blot out, therefore, from Your remembrance, O my Jesus.
the offences that in past times I have committed against You;
let us love each other henceforth forever.
I will not leave You and You will not leave me.
You will always love me and I will always love You.
My dearest Saviour, in Your merits I place my hope;
oh, make Yourself my beloved forever
and be loved greatly,
by a sinner who has offended You greatly.

O Mary, Immaculate Virgin,
help me and beseech Jesus for me. Amen

 

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS, Uncategorized

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY TWO – 15 JUNE

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY TWO – 15 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
Published in 1758 from THE HOLY EUCHARIST

MEDITATION II.
The Loving Heart of Jesus.

Oh, if we could but understand the love that burns in the heart of Jesus for us!   He has loved us so much, that if all men, all the Angels and all the Saints were to unite, with all their energies, they could not arrive at the thousandth part of the love that Jesus bears to us.   He loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves,   He has loved us even to excess: They spoke of His decease (excess) which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem. [Luke ix. 31]  And what greater excess of love could there be than for God to die for His creatures? He has loved us to the greatest degree:  Having loved His own . . . He loved them unto the end;  [John, xiii. 1] since, after having loved us from eternity, —–for there never was a moment from eternity when God did not think of us and did not love each one-of us:  I have loved thee with an everlasting love, [Jer. xxxi, 3]—–for the love of us.   He made Himself Man and chose a life of sufferings and the death of the Cross for our sake. Therefore He has loved us more than His honur, more than His repose and more than His life; for He sacrificed everything to show us the love that He bears us.   And is not this an excess of love sufficient to stupefy with astonishment the Angels of Paradise for all eternity?

This love has induced Him also to remain with us in the Holy Sacrament as on a throne of love;  for He remains there under the appearance of a small piece of bread, shut up in a ciborium, where He seems to remain in a perfect annihilation of His majesty, without movement and without the use of His senses;  so that it seems that He performs no other office there than that of loving men.   Love makes us desire the constant presence of the object of our love.   It is this love and this desire that makes Jesus Christ reside with us in the Most Holy Sacrament.   It seemed too short a time to this loving Saviour to have been only thirty-three years with men on earth;  therefore, in order to show His desire of being constantly with us, He thought right to perform the greatest of all miracles, in the institution of the Holy Eucharist.   But the work of redemption was already completed, men had already become reconciled to God;  for what purpose, then, did Jesus remain on earth in this Sacrament?   Ah, He remains there because He cannot bear to separate Himself from us, as He has said that He takes a delight in us.

Again, this love has induced Him even to become the food of our souls, so as to unite Himself to us and to make His heart and ours as one: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me and I in him. [John, vi. 57] O
wonder!   O excess of Divine love!   It was said by a servant of God, if anything could shake my faith in the Eucharist, it would not be the doubt as to how the bread could become flesh, or how Jesus could be in several places and confined into so small a space, because I should answer that God can do everything;   but if I were asked how He could love men so much as to make Himself their food, I have nothing else to answer but that this is a mystery of faith above my comprehension and that the love of Jesus cannot be understood.   O love of Jesus, do Thou make Thyself known to men and do Thou make Thyself loved!

DAY TWO - 15 JUNE

LET US PRAY – DAY TWO

O adorable heart of my Jesus, heart inflamed with the love of men,
heart created on purpose to love them,
how is it possible that You can be despised
and Your love so ill corresponded to by men?
Oh, miserable that I am, I also have been one of those ungrateful ones
that have not loved You.
Forgive me, my Jesus, this great sin of not having loved You,
Who are so amiable and Who has loved me so much
that You can do nothing more to oblige me to love You.
Grant me the grace to love You.
O Love of my Jesus; You are my Love.
O burning heart of my Jesus, inflame my heart also.
Do not permit me in future, even for a single moment,
to live without Your love; rather kill me, destroy me;
do not let the world behold the spectacle of such horrid ingratitude
as that I, who have been so beloved by You
and received so many favours and lights from You,
should begin again to despise Your love.
I trust in the Blood that You have shed for me,
that I shall always love You and that You will always love me
and that this love between You and me will not be broken off for all eternity.

O Mary, Mother of fair love,
you who desires so much to see Jesus loved,
bind me, unite me to your Son;
but bind me to Him, so that we may never again be separated. Amen

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY ONE – 14 JUNE

Posted on by AnaStpaul

NOVENA in honour of the SACRED HEART of JESUS – DAY ONE – 14 JUNE

By St Alphonsus Liguori  (1696-1787) Most Zealous Doctor
From The Holy Eucharist Published in 1758

MEDITATION I.
The Amiable Heart of Jesus.

He who shows himself amiable in everything must necessarily make himself loved.   Oh, if we only applied ourselves to discover all the good qualities by which Jesus Christ renders Himself worthy of our love, we should all be under the happy necessity of loving Him.   And what heart among all hearts can be found more worthy of love than the Heart of Jesus?

A heart all pure, all holy, all full of love towards God and towards us;  because all His desires are only for the Divine glory and our good.   This is the heart in which God finds all His delight.     Every perfection, every virtue reign in this heart; —–a most ardent love for God, His Father, united to the greatest humility and respect that can possibly exist;  a sovereign confusion for our sins, which He has taken upon Himself, united to the extreme confidence of a most affectionate Son;  a sovereign abhorrence of our sins, united to a lively compassion for our miseries;  an extreme sorrow. united to a perfect conformity to the will of God.

In Jesus is found everything that there can be most amiable.   Some are attracted to love others by their beauty, others by their innocence, others by living with them, others by devotion.   But if there were a person in whom all these and other virtues were united, who could help loving him?   If we heard that there was in a distant country a foreign prince who was handsome, humble, courteous, devout, full of charity, affable to all, I who rendered good to those who did him evil;   then, I although we knew not who he was, and though he knew not us and though we were not acquainted with him, nor was there any possibility of our ever being so, yet we should be enamoured of him and should be constrained to love him.   How is it, then, possible that Jesus Christ, Who possesses in Himself all these virtues and in the most perfect degree and Who loves us so tenderly, how is it possible that He should be so little loved by men and should not be the only object of our love?

O my God, how is it that Jesus, Who alone is worthy of love and Who has given us so many proofs of the love that He bears us, should be alone, as it were, the unlucky one with us, Who cannot arrive at making us love Him;  as if He were not sufficiently worthy of our love!   This is what caused floods of tears to St. Rose of Lima, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Teresa, St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, who, on considering the ingratitude of men, exclaimed, weeping, “Love is not loved, Love is not loved.”

DAY ONE - NOVENA SACRED HEART

LET US PRAY – DAY ONE:

O my amiable Redeemer,
what object more worthy of love could Your Eternal Father command me to love than You?
You are the beauty of Paradise,
You are the love of Your Father,
Your heart is the throne of all virtues.
O amiable heart of my Jesus,
You deserve the love of all hearts;
poor and wretched is that heart which loves You not!
So miserable, O my God, has my heart been, during all the time in which it has not loved You.
But I will not continue to be so wretched;
I love You, I will always continue to love You, O my Jesus.
O my Lord, I have hitherto forgotten You and now what can I expect?
That my ingratitude will oblige You to forget me entirely and forsake me forever?
No, my Saviour, do not permit this.
O lovely flames that burnt in the loving heart of my Jesus,
enkindle in my poor heart that holy fire which You came down from Heaven to kindle on earth.
Consume and destroy all the impure affections that dwell in my heart
and prevent it from being entirely Yours.
O my God, grant that it may only exist to love You and You alone, my dearest Saviour.
You are now the only object of my love. I love You, I love You, I love You and I will never love anyone else but You.
My beloved Lord, do not disdain to accept the love of a heart which has once afflicted You by my sins.
Let it be Your glory to exhibit to the Angels
a heart now burning with the love of You, which hitherto shunned and despised You.

Most holy Virgin Mary, my hope, will you assist me
and beseech Jesus to make me, by His grace, all that He wishes me to be.
Amen

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, JESUIT SJ, NOVENAS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS

ANNOUNCING the NOVENA to the SACRED HEART BEGINS 14 JUNE

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ANNOUNCING the NOVENA to the SACRED HEART
BEGINS 14 JUNE

ANNOUNCING the novena to the sacred heart - 14 June to begin.jpg

We may say that devotion to the Sacred Heart began on Calvary.   When the Heart of Christ was pierced on the Cross, it opened the door to realising how deeply Jesus loves us.   In return, He wants nothing more than for us to love Him with all our hearts.   There is nothing that God wants more than for us to love Him without reserve.
What God wants more than anything else is for us to love Him more than anyone else in the world.

This is the sum total of our Catholic faith.   We believe that God made us out of sheer love.   None of us, none of us had to exist.   We also believe He became man to die on the Cross out of love for us.   We further believe that He is present in the Blessed Sacrament with His living Heart of flesh so that we may come to Him and tell Him how deeply we love Him.

In today’s love-starving world, how we need to follow the example of Jesus Christ in His unspeakable love for us.   If there is one adjective that describes the modern world, this world is a loveless world.   This world is a selfish world.   This world is so preoccupied with space and time that it gives almost no thought to eternity and the everlasting joys that await those who have served God faithfully here on earth.

How do we serve God faithfully?   We serve Him only as faithfully as we serve Him lovingly, by giving ourselves to the needs of everyone whom God puts into our lives.   No one reaches heaven automatically.   Heaven must be dearly paid for.   The price of reaching heaven is the practice of selfless love here on earth.

That is why God puts into our lives so many occasions for loving people who obviously do not love us, or giving ourselves to people who have never given themselves to us.   How desperately we need, especially in today’s world, to learn that God became man in order to suffer and die out of love for us on the Cross.

That is what devotion to the Sacred Heart is all about.   It is the practice of selfless love toward selfish people.   It is giving ourselves to persons that do not give themselves to us. In all of our lives, God has placed selfish persons who may be physically close to us but spiritually are strangers and even enemies.   That is why God places unkind, unjust, even cruel people into our lives.   By loving them, we show something of the kind of love that God expects of His followers.

Devotion of the Sacred Heart is the solution to the gravest problem in the modern world today.   How can we give ourselves to those who do not love us, who even positively hate us?   We can love them, with the help of divine grace, by following the example of Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross out of love for a sin-laden human race……..Servant of God Fr John A. Hardon SJ

Let us Pray – starting on Wednesday 14 June.

Posted in MORNING Prayers, NOVENAS, Uncategorized

ST ANTHONY OF PADUA NOVENA for all our Needs – DAY NINE – 12 JUNE

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ST ANTHONY OF PADUA NOVENA for all our Needs – DAY NINE – 12 JUNE

DAY NINE - ST ANTHONY OF PADUA NOVENA

DAY NINE

Saint Anthony, servant of Mary,
glory of the Church,
pray for our Holy Father, our bishops, our priests, our Religious Orders,
that, through their pious zeal and apostolic labours,
all may be united in faith
and give greater glory to God.
St. Anthony, helper of all who invoke you,
pray for me and intercede for me before the throne of Almighty God
that I be granted the favour I so earnestly seek in this novena
(State your intention).

One Our Father, one Hail Mary and Glory Be to the Father, in honour of Saint Anthony.

Saint Anthony, pray for us!

May the divine assistance remain always with us.
Amen
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
O God, may the votive commemoration of blessed Anthony,
Your confessor, be a source of joy to Your Church,
that she may always be fortified with spiritual assistance
and deserve to enjoy eternal rewards.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit. Amen.