Easter Sunday

Holy Saturday

Good Friday

By Tacji (Tatiana)

Holy Thursday
Pange Lingua

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick

We know a lot about St. Patrick, but we don't know much about St. Brigid of Ireland, a young lady whose parents were baptized by St. Patrick and with whom she developed a close friendship. Probably helped to lead her to living out a religious life.

Anyway, March 17 is also my granddaughter's birthday and she was named Brigid.

The following is from www.Catholic.org

St. Brigid

Brigid was probably born at Faughart near Dundalk, Louth, Ireland. Her parents were baptized by St. Patrick, with whom she developed a close friendship. According to legend, her father was Dubhthach, an Irish chieftain of Lienster, and her mother, Brocca, was a slave at his court. Even as a young girl she evinced an interest for a religious life and took the veil in her youth from St. Macaille at Croghan and probably was professed by St. Mel of Armagh, who is believed to have conferred abbatial authority on her. She settled with seven of her virgins at the foot of Croghan Hill for a time and about the year 468, followed Mel to Meath. About the year 470 she founded a double monastery at Cill-Dara (Kildare) and was Abbess of the convent, the first in Ireland. The foundation developed into a center of learning and spirituality, and around it grew up the Cathedral city of Kildare. She founded a school of art at Kildare and its illuminated manuscripts became famous, notably the Book of Kildare, which was praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts before its disappearance three centuries ago. Brigid was one of the most remarkable women of her times, and despite the numerous legendary, extravagant, and even fantastic miracles attributed to her, there is no doubt that her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for those in distress were real. She died at Kildare on February 1. The Mary of the Gael, she is buried at Downpatrick with St. Columba and St. Patrick, with whom she is the patron of Ireland. Her name is sometimes Bridget and Bride. Her feast day is February 1. 

Not to be left out, but my oldest grandson is Brendan, and St. Brendan also knew St. Patrick and celebrates his birthday March 14.

The Miracle of Lanciano

The video below this post is not the first Eucharistic Miracle that has been seen over the past centuries. One of the more famous ones is the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano, Italy.

Around 700 A.D. in a monastery, a priest of the order of St. Basil, was celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He had been suffering from recurring doubts concerning the mystery of transubstantiation (the changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. After he spoke the solemn words of consecration of the host was suddenly changed into a circle of flesh and the wine transformed into blood.

Mary verifications of this miracle have been performed over the past 1,200 years, but the most convincing was made in November of 1970. This miracle underwent scientific scrutiny and the conclusions were presented on March 4, 1971 in detailed medical and scientific terminology. The microscopic studies ascertained and documented the following facts:

1. The flesh was identified as striated muscular tissue of the myocardium (heart wall) having no trace whatsoever of materials or agents used to preserve the flesh from decay.

2. Both the flesh and blood were found to belong to the same blood type AB.

The relics may be seen in the Church of St. Francis, Lanciano, Italy.

Amazing Eucharistic Miracle

Prepare Ourselves For Holy Week!

Pange Lingua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RH1qa4QjFM&feature=related

Litany of the Saints

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoydfOKaGBM

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday Right Around the Corner

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.

Why we receive the ashes

We receive ashes because they are a symbol of penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church, and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice.

To go along with these practices of penance during lent, we Catholics have also been taught that we should make an examination of conscience every day before we retire for the evening. And lent is a great time to get into the habit of examining our consciences for the next 40 days along with prayer and fasting so that we can put it into practice the rest of the year.

This year we need to focus our prayers to fight abortion and to offer up our sufferings to God in reparation for the sins of those who promote abortion, starting with the Catholic pro-choice politicians and pray that they will not be enacting the FOCA bill that will destroy a lot of freedoms along with the unborn.

So, to overcome our failings during lent, we must know them. We must do a daily check of our service to God so that we begin to know what we must watch, in order to root out of our lives imperfect or sinful habits. Below are some suggestions.

• Have I tried to live this day mindful of the presence of God?
• Have I tried in all things to do His will?
• Have I murmured or been impatient with the reverses or the difficulties I have met?
• Have I been guilty of any act or word contrary to truth, honesty or purity?
• Have I given way to pride, envy or hatred?
• Have I spoken of the faults of others?
• Have I hurt anyone's feelings by my words or actions?
• Have I encouraged those who were speaking of the faults of others?
• Have I been seriously trying today to lead a holy life - by avoiding sin, loving God, and being concerned for all with whom I come in contact?
• Do I live selfishly, as though the people with whom I come in contact did not matter to me?
• Am I concerned over the salvation of the souls of those around me?
• Am I willing to inconvenience myself to help others?
• Am I kind only to my friends, or do I help also my enemies?

Here is a nice Act of Contrition we can pray each day as well. It's a little different than the usual one we say at Confession.

ACT OF CONTRITION

Have mercy on me, according to Thy great mercy. Behold, I am deeply sorry for all my sins, because I have deserved to be punished by Thee, the all-knowing and just Judge, in this life and in the life to come, but much more because I have offended and grieved Thee, the most high and most loveable Good.

And according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my iniquities. Cast me not away from thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. I am firmly resolved never to offend Thee again. Help me with Thy grace. O Jesus, for Thee I live; O Jesus, for Thee I die; O Jesus, I am Thine in life and death. Amen!

First Five Saturdays Devotion to the Immaculate Heart

It's always made me wonder why the Five Saturday's devotion to the Immaculate Heart isn't being practiced publicly much anymore. This devotion goes back to the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. Her message told all the faithful just what we and our Bishops and Pope need to do in order to bring peace to this world, the conversion of sinners and of Russia. I think my post will show us why things are not being brought to total fulfillment with the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

First off, the practice of the Five First Saturdays is a wider devotion to Christ and His Mother. And it's such a simple devotion. All we need to do is attend Mass on the first Saturday (not Sunday Mass held on Saturday night), go to confession on that day or 8 days prior or after the first Saturday, pray five decades of the rosary, meditate for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the rosary and do this with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which I will explain in a bit.

I am reading a book entitled "The Wonders of Fatima" written by Father Joseph Cacella in 1947. I am going to post some exerpts from this book regarding the First Five Saturdays Devotion.

(From Page 94-98) Mary gave the following message to Lucia, and this message was given an Imprimatur: Santuario de Fatima 21st of Sept 1939 JOSE, Bishop of Leiria:

"Behold my Immaculate Heart encircled with the thorns which ungrateful men thrust therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me and tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes, while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."

All Christians should try to observe the Five First Saturdays. This is easy if Communion is received habitually on the First Friday of each month. It is a means of obtaining the great graces lavished in the sacraments and sacramentals involved. It will increase faith, purity of morals and peace of conscience. It will please Our Lord Who desires it, and console the Immaculate Heart of Mary who inaugurated the devotion. Our Holy Father (then Pope Pius XII) encouraged it greatly (I might add that this book was dedicated to Pope Pius XII). Mary will faithfully keep her promise to obtain the grace of a holy death for those who practice it. She will effect the conversion of Russia if the devotion is practiced universally.

Is it possible this is why the complete conversion of Russia hasn't happened - because we are not practicing this devotion universally? In fact, again, how many parishes do this devotion in the world, because it has to be done in the whole world. In fact, have any of us ever heard a priest mention this devotion? The only priest I mentioned it to, was back in 1991 when I first came back to the Church, and he pretty much told me it is superstitious nonsense.  Well that kind of blows a person out of the water when a priest says something like that.

Back to the book (page 95)

The conditions of the Great Promise are simple. The devotion is based squarely on the Eucharist, confession and prayer. These conditions are:

1. Confession (sacrament)
2. Communion (sacrament)
3. 5 decades of the rosary (sacramental)
4. 15 minutes of meditation on the mystery of the Rosary (sacramental)
5. Intentions of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart (Her (Mary) own request)

Confession required can be made within the 8 days before or after the First Saturday. The First Friday confession will satisfy the obligation. Of course, this is another problem, how many of our parishes actually have a First Friday devotional Mass? It's about the same as those who do not have the First Saturday devotional Mass. Or maybe we just have to attend Mass on that day, or does the Mass have to be attributed to Mary? I don't know. As for confession, the difference between this confession and others is that it should be accompanied by a spirit of reparation to the Heart of Our Lady. The Bishop of Leiria declared that "should one forget to form the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, it may be formed at the next confession, occasion to go to confession being taken at the first opportunity."

Now my question has always been - What is the reparation that Mary is talking about?

THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION

The act of making reparation is merely making pious exercises to the Immaculate Heart. The pious exercises' motive is a sublime one, worthy of the angels. Some of the pious exercises include saying an extra rosary, or praying fifteen decades with meditation to satisfy both requirements of praying the rosary and meditating on the mysteries of our redemption. We can also make the Stations of the Cross with the Sorrowful Mother to console her and to meditate on the fourth sorrowful mystery which is the "Carrying of the Cross". We can attend a sermon on the Rosary, read thoughtfully from a book on the Rosary or meditate on the five sorrowful mysteries while attending morning Mass, provided there IS a morning Mass.The faithful who console the Heart of Our Lady please Jesus, for they participate to some extent in the Passion of Christ Who suffered the more on beholding His Mother's grief.

The practice of dedicating Saturday to Our Lady, is a very ancient and Catholic one. All Saturdays are favorite days for clients of Mary. Their spirit of filial piety and atonement finds its natural expression in attendance at Mass and mortification on that day. The Church, under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit has richly indulgenced this type of devotion. That the Five Saturday Devotion of Fatima is not novel is obvious from the following decrees of the Holy Office (New Raccolta), page 249, no. 335)

Here are the promises we receive from Mary in regards to praying this devotion.

A. The faithful who on the first Saturday of each month perform some special exercises of devotion in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate in order to make atonement for the blasphemies whereby the name and prerogatives of the same Blessed Virgin are reviled, may gain: A plenary indulgence on the usual conditions. (S.C. Holy Office, June 13, 1912.
 
Note: I find it interesting that this was put out on the same day of the month as Mary appeared to the children 5 years later in 1917.).

B. Those who once in their lifetime perform such a devout exercise on the first Saturdays of eight successive months may gain, without prejudice to the above plenary indulgence: A plenary indulgence at the hour of death, if, after confession and Communion, or at least being truly contrite, they invoke with their lips, if possible, otherwise in their hearts, the most Holy Name of Jesus, and accept death with resignation from the Hand of God as the due punishment of their sins. (Benedict XV, Rescript in his own hand, November the 9th, 1920, exhib Nov. 17, 1920).

FATIMA AND CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART

"I ask the consecration of the world to my Immaculate Heart."

 Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady repeated several times to the children of Fatima her desire that the entire world be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Unassuming and humble as Our Lady is, hiding always in the shadow of her beloved Son, she made it clear that this consecration was the desire of God Himself. Mary strongly affirmed that the afflictions being visited upon the world were the punishment of sin and that God's wrath would be greatly placated by the act of consecration. Recording Mary's words in a letter of March 19, 1939, Sister Lucy wrote: "On the practice of this devotion together with the consecration to my Immaculate Heart depends either war or peace for the world.

Is that the answer then? The practice of this devotion is required of all Catholics together with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart if we are going to have war or peace? So why aren't a lot of Catholics doing this? Maybe people don't even know about it. Again, I don't know.

There have been numerous consecrations done, not always by a pope, but by Bishops, since this apparition. At least two popes have attempted to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before it was finally done correctly by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

First, on the 13th of May, 1931, a grateful Portugal made a national pilgrimage to the site of Our Lady's apparitions. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful participated. The nation was solemnly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the words of the consecration being transmitted to the people thorough loudspeakers. Our Lady was invoked as Queen of the Rosary, of Dolors, and of Carmel. The thirteen bishops present, clad in cope and mitre, elevated their hands and voices in unison to impart the Pontifical blessing.

May 13, 1938, the ceremony was repeated. Rumors of war were rife in Europe and the faithful of Portugal turned to their heavenly Protectress with greater fervor than ever. The bishops had consecrated their respective dioceses to the Immaculate Heart and vowed to make this solemn pilgrimage with their flocks. A record number of faithful were present. The terrible war raged in almost every corner of the globe, but Portugal continued to enjoy the blessing of peace and the special protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The first consecration of the world by a pope took place October 31, 1942 by Pope Pius XII just before major turning points in World War II, but he did it alone and not with all the Bishops in the world, as requested by Mary. The Pope consecrated to Mary not only the Church but the whole human race, as "Father of Christianity" as representative of Christ, who has all power in heaven and on earth. Pope Pius called for a prayer crusade to the Queen of Peace, because he felt that only she could help the world, which was then at the height of war in Europe and the Pacific. Pope Pius also dedicated the whole human race and especially Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But this apparently wasn't done correctly, according to Sister Lucia.

Pope Pius XII again attempted to consecrate the Russian people to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on July 7, 1952, but it still was not done properly.

And in 1964, Pope Paul VI renewed Pius XII's consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, but again this pope did it alone. Sister Lucia continued to insist that it had to be collegial (with the Bishops).

After Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, he began requesting and studying more deeply the documents related to Fatima. His determination to consecrate Russia with the bishops of the world became stronger. He remarked that he had come to understand that the only way to save the world from war, to save it from atheism, was the conversion of Russia according to the message of Fatima. I always thought it was to be done for Russia so that they would not continue to spread their errors around the world.

Pope John Paul's first attempt happened on May 12-13, 1982, when the Pope visited Fatima to thank Mary for sparing his life. He did conduct a consecration of the world and Russia, but many bishops did not receive the request to join him in time and Sister Lucia said it did not fulfill all the requirements.

So in 1984, Pope John Paul II sent invitations to the world's bishops, including Orthodox, to join him on March 25, 1984 for the Collegial Consecration of the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was joined by a moral totality of the world's bishops in the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Shortly thereafter, Sister Lucia told the Papal Nuncio of Lisbon the Collegial Consecration for the conversion of Russia had been accomplished and God will keep His word. The Nuncio answered: 'Now we await the miracle'.

So, finally, after nearly 70 years of waiting for this to happen, the world and Russia were finally and properly consecrated to our Blessed Mother as she requested in 1917. In 1989, the collapse of communism occurred in Russia, the wall came down in East Berlin, and it did seem as though the world was in peace. But then came 9/11 - Sept. 11, 2001 and the subsequent war the United States was fighting with Afghanistan and Iraq. So what has happened?

It is my opinion that it is now up to the people of the world, the Catholics of the world if no one else wants to join us, to now do as Our Lady requested - spread the devotion of the the first Saturdays and practice the devotion, and convince our priests and bishops that these things need to be done if we are ever to achieve peace in our world. We need to do this before things get out of hand, as it seems to be happening now. How long can our prayers appease God when there is so much sin in this world? All of mankind needs to turn from their sin. This has always been God's will and we need to do it. But first we need to convince our parishes to begin holding Mass on the first Saturdays of each month IF the Saturday evening Masses for Sunday do not count, and I'm not sure about it. If we do this, I believe the Triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart will finally happen. When that day comes, we are assured there will be peace in our world.

Click this link to find the text of the consecration to the Immaculate Heart.
http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/heart/Im_consecr.htm

Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco
The Children of Fatima