Quote/s of the Day – 22 August – Month and Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption)
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
“Let us decide to become one, with all the faithful, in offering the prayers and actions and sufferings of each day to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of His Mother Mary. We shall certainly receive showers of graces, both for ourselves and for the salvation of the souls of our neighbours.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Prayer to the Two Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us Your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together! May we unite our hearts and every heart so that all hearts may live in unity and in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know You and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of your Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Your most merciful will. Amen
Another symbolic picture of the admirable Heart of the most Holy Mother of God is the miraculous furnace described in the third chapter of the Prophet Daniel. St. John Damascene and many other holy Doctors affirm that the fiery furnace was a figure of the sinless Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its burning fire a reflection of the heavenly fire in the holy breast of the Mother of Fair Love. Here are St. John Damascene’s words: “Is it not true,” he says addressing Our Lady, “that this furnace, filled with a fire at once burning and refreshing, was a faithful image of thee and an excellent picture of the divine and eternal fire dwelling within thee?”
But you may well ask how anything so noble and holy as the Heart of the Queen of Heaven could be represented by the furnace of Babylon, an instrument of torture designed by the wickedness and cruelty of King Nabuchodonosor? Remember that the three young men, Sidrach, Misach and Abdenago, thrown into the furnace to be burnt to ashes, belonged to the people of Israel, and everything that happened to the Israelites was a figure and a foreshadowing of the great miracles that were to be fulfilled in Christianity, and in the Father and Mother of Christians. “All these things happened to them in figure.” Remember also that St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great tell us that Sacred Scripture mentions many objects which though profane and wicked in themselves, are nevertheless a representation of good and holy thoughts.
Certainly that furnace was the product of Nabuchodonosor’s impious rage, but divine Providence, without whose order and permission nothing can happen, designated it to show the extent of the power of God and the marvels of His goodness, through the miraculous protection given to His faithful friends.
In the furnace of Babylon we behold many marvels wrought by God’s omnipotence. Consider that in the midst of the furnace filled with fire and flame, there should be a refreshing wind, likened to fragrant dew. “The angel made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew.” What a marvel it is to behold a burning furnace whose flames protect those inside its crucible, while they destroy those who remain outside! What a miracle to see fire comforting and refreshing those cast into the sevenfold heat of its flames, while burning to death those standing at a safe distance! How miraculous for three young men to survive in a furnace whose flames leapt to a height of forty-nine cubits, not suffering injury but walking about with joy as in a place of delight! The three gladly sang the praises of Almighty God and emerged from their ordeal with greater strength and vigor than before while the fire could not so much as singe a single fibre of their clothing. Great indeed are the marvels to be found in Babylon’s furnace; yet they merely foreshadow the miracles which we find in the furnace of the glowing Heart of the Queen of Angels.
It is a great miracle to witness fire and water subsisting side by side in the furnace of Nabuchodonosor. The fire did not turn the cooling water into steam nor did the water quench the burning heat of the fire. What manner of fire is this? It is the fire of divine love burning in the Virginal Heart of Mary. What is the cooling dew? It is the water of tribulation, which so often flooded the holy Heart of the Mother of Sorrows. The fire of love did not dry up the waters of affliction; and the waters of tribulation were unable, I shall not say to extinguish, but even to diminish in the least degree the divine ardor of that heavenly fire.
Love has the virtue of fire, that it may unceasingly inflame the Virgin Mother’s purest Heart with its sacred ardour, and also the properties of water, as it extinguishes entirely the fire of self-love and of attachment to vain and perishable things. Is it not a great miracle to behold a fire refreshing, consoling and filling with joy the children of the Mother of God, while it pursues, burns, devours its enemies? Her virginal Heart, which is ablaze with love for her true children, directs the fire and flame of its anger against those who injure or scandalize her loved ones.
Three Hebrew children walked safely in the first furnace; yet the prophet saw there four, and the fourth was like the Son of God. “The form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Actually it was an angel, representing the Only-begotten Son of God in the Babylonian furnace, but this same Son of God resides and dwells in person in the glowing Heart of His most holy Mother. He is all fire and flame of love and charity. “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire.”
We also notice that the three young men were bound hand and foot when thrown into the furnace, but immediately their bonds were consumed by the fire and they were freed within the furnace. Come, come, poor slaves of sin and of the world! Come, slaves of passion, of self-love and self-will, chained in the irons and fetters of Babylon! Fear not to plunge into our sacred furnace! These flames will not harm you; instead they will destroy your fetters and establish you in the holy liberty of the children of God and of His loving Mother. They will inflame your hearts with the fire of heavenly love, they will transform them into divine fire itself.
Your hearts must become furnaces of eternal love, if they would avoid being ranked with the miserable hearts of the wicked against whom the terrible sentence was uttered: “Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, in the time of thy anger.” What dost Thou will to do, O Lord, with the ungrateful wretches, whom Thou didst create to love Thee, whose obligations to love Thee are boundless, yet who have loved everything but Thee, and have even kindled fires of insult and heaped outrages upon Thee? Thou shalt make of them furnaces of wrath, in the time of Thy terrible vengeance. Thou shalt hurl them into the eternal fire prepared for Satan and his minions, where they will be swallowed, burned and penetrated by the infernal fire. In life these souls would not permit the sweet and radiant flames of Thy holy love to burn within them, so they shall be yielded to the eternal torments of devouring fire in endless hell.
Would you avoid this tragedy, the greatest of all misfortunes? Then give your hearts to your admirable Queen, imploring her to offer them to her beloved Son with the prayer that He may kindle in them the fire He came to spread on earth, the fire He so greatly desires should be lighted. On your part, correspond by removing every obstacle from your hearts, and if this sacred flame is already burning there, make every effort to increase it more and more, by the practice of Christian virtues, the meditation of the gospel and especially the exercise of divine love and charity.
Our Morning Offering – 19August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and the Memorial of St John Eudes (1601-1680) Confessor, “The Apostle of Two Hearts.”
To the Two Loving Hearts By St John Eudes (1601-1680)
O Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I offer You the most loving Heart of Your divine Mother which is more precious and pleasing to You than all hearts.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I offer you the most adorable Heart of your well-beloved Son, who is the life and love and joy of your Heart.
Blessed be the Most Loving Heart and Sweet Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, in eternity and forever. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 19 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – and the Memorial of St John Eudes (1601-1680) Confessor, “The Apostle of Two Hearts”
“The crosses with which our path through life is strewn, associate us with Jesus in the Mystery of His Crucifixion.”
“No-one who shall invoke this Mother of Grace, with devotion and perseverance, can possibly perish forever.”
“Let infidels and heretics, let the relatives and the friends of bad Catholics, weep without consolation and weep unceasingly, for the death of their departed ones!”
Thy royal heart is our pure light, our refuge safe. Why should I fear? Her goodness is firm support of our lives, Nothing can trouble our hearts.
Consider how strange it is! The world offers nothing but crumbs and dregs of feasting, empty fame, wealth and fleeting pleasure, but it sells you these stale crumbs and dregs at the costly price of worry, pain, bitterness, restlessness, anguish, often even at the price of your very life. On the other hand, the Divine Son of God and of Mary offers you the refreshment and rapture of the fountain of the fulness of the House of God, of which you are free to drink forever. O what blind, blind folly it is to choose the goblet of sin instead of the chalice of Our Saviour!
Blessed indeed are the hearts of the true children of Mary, who strive to live in conformity with the most holy Heart of their Mother most admirable!
Just as everything in Our Lord Jesus Christ is great and admirable, so also everything that concerns Mary, His holy Mother, is replete with grandeur and marvels. Every part of the sacred humanity of the Son of God is deified and raised to an infinite dignity through its union with the Divinity; so likewise everything in the Blessed Virgin Mary is ennobled and sanctified by her divine maternity. There is no part of the sacred body of the God-Man that is not worthy of the eternal admiration of angels and men, and there is nothing in the virginal body of the Mother of God that is unworthy of the eternal praise of all creatures.
There are five marvellous prerogatives of the corporeal heart of Mary which render it forever worthy to receive the veneration of men and angels.
The first prerogative consists in the fact that the heart is the principle of the life of our holy Mother. It is the principle of all the functions of her bodily, material life, ever holy in itself and in its every function and employment. It is the source of the life of the Mother of God, the life of her who gave birth to the only Son of God, the life of the woman through whom God gave life to all the children of Adam, sunk as they were in the abyss of eternal death. Finally, her heart is the source of a life so holy, so noble, so sublime that it is more precious in the sight of God than the lives of all the angels and men.
The second prerogative of the corporeal heart of Mary is that it produced the virginal blood with which the sacred body of the God-Man was formed in the chaste womb of His blessed Mother.
The third prerogative of Mary’s heart of flesh is that it was the source of the human, material life of the Infant Jesus during the nine months that He dwelt in Mary’s sacred womb. While the infant is in its mother’s bosom, the mother’s heart is to such an extent the source of the infant’s life that both mother and infant can be said to depend upon it for their existence. Mary’s admirable heart was therefore the source of the two most noble and precious lives, at once the source of the holy life of the Mother of God and of her only son, the humanly divine as well as the divinely human life of the God-Man.
The fourth prerogative of the amiable heart of Mary to Jesus, who is her Son and her Father, her Brother and her Spouse: “Our bed is flourishing,” that is, our bed is covered and perfumed with flowers. What is this bed? It is the pure heart of the Blessed Virgin where the divine Infant so gently rested?
It was a great privilege for St. John, the beloved disciple, to have rested once on the Saviour’s adorable breast, from which he drew such great light and derived the knowledge of so many marvellous secrets. But not only once but many times did our divine Saviour rest on the virginal heart of His dearest Mother.What abundance of lights, of grace and of blessings the Eternal Sun, the very source of light and grace, must have poured into that maternal heart, on which He rested so often! Her heart never interposed the slightest obstacle to divine grace. On the contrary, she was always disposed to welcome every celestial favor. Our Lord loved her heart more than all other hearts put together, and was in turn loved by it more perfectly than by the hearts of all the Seraphim. What union, what intimacy, what understanding, what correspondence between these two Hearts! What fire in these two furnaces of love constantly inflamed by the breath of the Holy Ghost!
And now we come to the fifth prerogative of this holy heart. It is the altar upon which a great and perpetual sacrifice, most agreeable to God, is constantly offered. On it are immolated all the natural passions which reside in the human heart.
We may consider the most pure body of Mary as a sacred temple, indeed as the most august temple that ever was or will be, next to the temple of the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, her divine Son.
One Minute Reflection – 27 June – “The Month and the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus” – Mother of Perpetual Succour – Within the Octave of St John the Baptist – Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 – John 19:31-37 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“… One of the soldiers opened His side with a lance and immediately there came forth blood and water. ” – John 19:34
REFLECTION – “Let us draw near to the Heart of our most sweet Lord Jesus and we shall be glad and rejoice in it. How good and how sweet it is to dwell in this Heart! This is the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price which we discover, O Jesus, when we dig in the field of Thy Body (cf Mt 13:44). Who, then, would cast aside this Pearl? Far from it! For It, I will give away all my goods and offer in exchange, all my concerns and affections. I will lay down all my cares in the Heart of Jesus, it is He Who will suffice for me and Who will, without fail, supply all I need to live on!
It is within this temple, this Holy of holies, this Ark of the Covenant, that I shall come to offer worship and praise to the Lord’s Name. “I have found a heart with which to pray to my God” said David (1 Ch 17:25). And I too have found the Heart of my Lord and King, my Brother and Friend. Shall I not pray to Him, then? Indeed I shall pray, for, I dare to say it – His Heart is all mine…
O Jesus, deign to receive and answer my prayer. Draw me wholly into Thine Heart. Although the deformity of my sins prevents me from entering in, yet, Thou can receive and purify me from my impurities since, through an incomprehensible Love, this Heart has expanded and opened wide. O most pure Jesus, wash me from my iniquities so that, purified by Thee, I may dwell in Thy Heart all the days of my life, to see and do Thy will. If Thine Side has been pierced, then it is so that our entrance there should be opened. If Thine Heart has been wounded, then it is so that, sheltered from outward distress, we can make our home within it. And, too, it is so that in this visible wound, we might see the invisible wound of Love.” – [Attrib] St Bonaventure (1221-1274) Franciscan, Doctor of the Church (editations on the Lord’s Passion 3).
PRAYER – God our Father, Thou opens the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to those who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost. Increase the grace Thou hast given, so that the people who have been purified from all sin, may not forfeit the promised blessing of Thy love. Grant that we may ever keep Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, before our eyes and do all in Him and through Him and for Him and may the prayers of our Mother of Perpetual Succour ever guide and bear us in her care! We make our pray through Christ, our Lord,who livest and reignest with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God forever, amen. (Collect).
Ejaculation:My Lady and my Mother, remember, I am thine; protect and defend me as thy property and possession.
St Gottschalk and Companions (Died 1066) Lay Missionary Martyr St Justus of Condat St Landulf of Yariglia St Lycarion of Egypt
Venerable Matt Talbot (1856 – 1925) (born Matthew Talbot) – Layman, Ascetic, Mystic – known as the “Saint in Overalls” and “the Workers’ Saint” disciple of Eucharistic Adoration and the Blessed Virgin – Patron of Struggling and Recovering Addicts and Alcoholics and many addiction treatment programs, retreats and centres throughout the world bear his name. On 6 November 1931, Edward Joseph Byrne, Archbishop of Dublin, opened a sworn inquiry into the alleged claims of holiness of the former dock worker. He was declared Venerable in 1975. The Matt Talbot Story: https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/07/saint-of-the-day-7-june-venerable-matt-talbot-ofs/
St Meriadoc I of Vannes St Meriadoc II of Vannes St Odo of Massay St Potamiaena of Alexandria the Younger St Quirinus of Cluny Martyr. No other information has survived.
St Robert of Newminster O.Cist. (c 1100–1159) English Priest, Abbot, Apostle of the poor, Miracle-worker. He was one of the Monks who founded Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, England, another at Newminster, Northumbria and 3 other Monasteries Robert ruled and directed the Monks at Newminster for 21 years. St Robert’s Life: https://anastpaul.com/2021/06/07/saint-of-the-day-7-june-saint-robert-newminster-o-cist-c-1100-1159/
St Sergius of Cluny St Vulflagius of Abbeville
Martyrs of Africa – 7 Saints: A group of seven Christians who were Martyred together. No details about them have survived except the names – Donata, Evasius, Guirillus, Januaria, Privata, Spisinna, Victurus. The precise location in Africa and date are unknown.
Martyred in Córdoba, Spain: Habentius of Córdoba Jeremiah of Córdoba Peter of Córdoba Sabinian of Córdoba Wallabonsus of Córdoba Wistremundus of Córdoba
Our Morning Offering – 4 June – “The Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” – Within the Corpus Christi Octave
Daily Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Prayers to the Sacred Heart 1936 – 15th Edition, Dublin
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, filled with infinite love, broken by our ingratitude and pierced by our sins, yet loving us still, accept the Consecration we make to Thee, of all that we are and all that we have. Take every faculty of our souls and bodies, only day by day draw us, nearer and nearer to Thy Sacred Heart, and there, as we shall hear the lesson, teach us Thy Holy Way. Amen
AnaStpaul 
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