Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Power of the Holy Name of JESUS

The Name of JESUS is the shortest, the easiest, and the most powerful of prayers. Everyone can say it, even in the midst of daily work. Our Lord Himself has solemnly promised that whatever we ask the Father in His Name we shall receive (provided, of course, that it be for His glory and the good of our soul).
Each time we pronounce the holy Name of JESUS with reverence and love, and with proper intention, we give great glory to God and obtain for ourselves priceless graces.

(With ecclesiastical approval 14-9-1948)

Each time we say JESUS, we may, in desire: --
Make an act of perfect love, offering to God all the infinite love of His Divine Son as if it were our own.
Offer the Passion and Death of Our Lord to the Eternal Father for His greater glory and our own intentions.
Offer to God all the infinite merits and perfections of Jesus.
Offer all the Holy Masses said each day throughout the world, for the glory of God and the good of our own and others' souls.
Each time we say JESUS, we increase in our souls the virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Our faith becomes more lively, our confidence in God greater, and our love more intense.
The holy Name of JESUS saves us from innumerable evils and dangers, helps us to overcome temptations, and delivers us from the power of the devil, who is constantly seeking to do us harm.
The holy Name of JESUS fills our souls with peace and joy, and gives us strength to bear our trials and sufferings with patience and resignation.Each time we say JESUS, we can gain an indulgence of 300 days, which we may apply to the souls in purgatory, thus relieving and liberating many of them from their awful pains, and gaining for ourselves friends who will pray for us with incredible fervor.
We ought, therefore, to try to acquire the habit of saying JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, very often every day, with fervent love and devotion -- when dressing, when working -- no matter what we are doing, in moments of sadness and in moments of joy, at home, in company, on the street, when walking, riding, or waiting. We can say it countless times every day, and thus gain untold graces and blessings for ouselves and for the whole world. Nothing is easier, if only we do it with all our heart.
The frequent repetition of the Name of JESUS far from tiring us gives us a joy, a peace, a happiness we never had before. We can say it for exemple:
When working -- no matter what we may be doing -- we can go on saying JESUS, at home, in the streets, walking or driving in cars, in trains, everywhere.
When ladies go shopping, when men go and return from their work, when servants are toiling all the day long, they can easily get into the habit of repeating JESUS. No effert is required, all we have to do is to let this blessed Name flow from our hearts and lips.
The one thing that we have to do is to form the habit of constantly saying JESUS. In the beginning we must give it care and attention in order to acquire the custom of saying it. Then we shall have an immense treasure in our hands for the rest of our lives.

Heralders of Divine Love, 47-46 Xenia Street, Rego Park, New York 11368

Friday, January 27, 2006

The Sacred Face of Jesus Christ

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? - responde mihi.

The Lord show His Face to thee, and have mercy on thee.
The Lord turn His Face to thee, and give thee peace.
(Blessing of Aaron.)
Behold, O God, our protector; and look on the Face of Thy Christ. (Ps. 83.)

The adorable Face of Our Redeemer, God and Man, disfigured by the most cruel treatment and reflecting the inexpressible sufferings of His loving heart, is an object most worthy of our veneration. Who can represent to himself this Face stamped with heavenly beauty, brilliant in its divine majesty, and transfigured by infinite love, and not have his heart penetrated with the most tender compassion for the painful sufferings which it endured for us? And so the devotion to the most Sacred Face of Jesus has been, at all times, practised in the Catholic Church. Our Lord himself laid the foundation of this devotion by leaving on the veil of St. Veronica the impression of His Face covered with blood. This miraculous impression is preserved as a most precious treasure in St. Peter's church, at Rome, and is exposed for the veneration of the faithful several times during the year.
A great many saints have had a special devotion to the most Holy Face: amongst them St. Bernard, St. Gertrude and St. Mechtildis. But it was reserved to our times to see the great widespread of this beautiful devotion. Our Lord made use for that purpose of a saintly maid, Sister mary of St. Peter, a carmelite at Tours (+ 1848), to whom He made numerous and consoling promises for those who venerate His Sacred Face, and thus make reparation for the crual treatment He suffered in it. A pious layman, Mr. Dupont, was especially zealous in propagating this devotion and he rightly deserves to be called the Apostle of the devotion to the adorable Face. Since that time the Confraternity of reparation of the most Holy Face, instituted in 1876 by the Right Revd. Mgr. Collet, Bishop of Tours, has hundred of thousands of members.
The object of this devotion is to offer to the adorable Face of Our Lord, disfigured by sufferings, the homage of our love and veneration, and to make reparation, not only for the insults which it endured during the dolorous week of the Passion, but also for the blasphemies and profanations of the Sunday in our times, which renew the outrages it then suffered; and lastly, to obtain from God the conversion of blasphemers and Sunday-profaners.

PROMISES

made by Our Lord Jesus Christ to the venerable Sister Mary of St. Peter in favour of those who worship His Sacred Face.

1. Our Lord, says Sister Mary of St. Peter, has promised me to impress on the hearts of those who honour His most Sacred Face, the features of His divine likeness. (January 21st 1844.)
2. Through my Sacred Face you will work wonders. (October 27th 1845.)
3. You will obtain through my Sacred Face the salvation of many sinners. In return for that offering nothing shall be refused to you. If you knew how agreeable the sight of my Face is to my Father! (November 22nd 1846.)
4. As in a kingdom you obtain everything you wish for with the money bearing the image of the Prince, thus with the precious money of my humanity, which is my adorable Face, you will obtain in heaven whatever you ask for. (October 29th 1845.)
5. All those who endeavour to honour my Sacred Face in a spitit of reparation, will in this manner do what pious Veronica has done. (October 29th 1845).
6. The more you take care in repairing my Face, disfigured through blasphemies, the more I will take care of yours, disfigured through sin. I will again impress on it my image, and make it as beautiful as it was when leaving the Baptismal Font. (November 3rd 1845.)
7. Our Lord has promised me, says Sister Mary of St. Peter, that He would defend before His Father those who by words, prayers or writings, have defended Him in this work of reparation. At their death He would cleanse their soul from all stain of sin, and give it back its primitive beauty (March 18th 1846.)

PRAYER OF POPE PIUS IX.

O my Jesus! cast a look of mercy upon us; turn toward each of us Thy Sacred Face, as Thou didst to St. Veronica, not that we may see it with the eyes of our body, for this we do not deserve; but turn it towards our hearts, that, remembering Thee, we may draw from this source of strength the help necessary for the combats we have to endure.

(Audience granted to three parishes in Rome, March 10th 1872. Several bishops have enriched this prayer with indulgences.)

OTHER PRAYERS

Hail, o adorable Face of Jesus, noble seal of Divinity; I adore thee and I love Thee! I address myself to Thee with all the strength of my soul, humbly imploring Thee to impress on our hearts all features of Thy divine image. Amen.

Almighty God, heavenly Father! look down upon the Face of Thy divine Son! We offer it to Thee with confidence, to obtain pardon for our sins. Jesus, the Mediator between heaven and earth, opens His mouth to pray for us. O hear His words, behold His tears, and for the sake of His infinite merits, graciously hear Him when interceding for us poor sinners. Amen.

Have merccy on us, O my God, and reject not our prayers, when in the midst of our calamities we invoke Thy Holy Name, and with love and confidence fly to Thy adorable Face. Amen.

ASPIRATIONS

Father in heaven, we offer to Thee the adorable Face of Thy beloved Son for the glory of Thy Holy Name and the safety of our country. (Sister Mary of St. Peter.)

May I die consumed by the burning longing to contemplate the desirable Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Prayer of St. Edme, which Mr. Dupont used to repeat in the last years of his life.)

With the approval of the Right Revd William Clifford, Bishop of Clifton.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Veil of Veronica

The Holy Face represents the Divinity and the Holy Name of God outraged by blasphemers. --

THE GOLDEN ARROW

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

Eternal Father, we offer Thee the Holy Face of Jesus covered with blood, sweat, dust, and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of blasphemers and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day of Sunday. Amen.

DEVOTION THE THE HOLY FACE

Devotion to the Holy Face of Christ is a means of making reparation for all the insults, blasphemies and irreverences which Christ endured for sinners during His Sacred Passion.
The love of His Sacred Heart for us is portrayed on His adorable Countenance which He offers to His Eternal Father in reparation for our sins, and He revealed to a Discalced Carmelite Nun of Tours, France that He wishes these prayers, the Golden Arrow and the Offering of His Holy Face to be used by us as means of consoling Him and making repartion for the evils of our day.
For centuries there have been in the Church chosen souls who practiced devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord. Amongst these are numbered St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Edmund of Canterbury, and St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
These prayers, when said with fervor and real purpose, will merit for us the promises made by Our Lord.

OUR LORD REVEALED IN PARTICULAR THAT:

Blasphemy and the Desecration of Sunday are the two principal sins in modern times.
Executioners crucified Him on Friday, but the Christians crucify Him on Sunday.
Blasphemies, cursing and the desecration of Sunday are hurled against His Divinity, Whom they cannot reach, but fall back like spittle of the mob upon the Face of Our Lord.
All blows inflicted on Holy Church, attacking religion, are as a renewal of the blows received by His Face in The Passion.
His Name is everywhere blasphemed, even by children. This is the sin that curses God to His Face.
The Holy Face is the very Image of God.
Priests who publicly defend His cause become as the great St. Dismas who proclaimed His Divinity in the midst of blasphemers, and will be given "My Kingdom".
All who compassionate His Suffering Face perform the same office as the Holy Veronica and will have His Sacred Countenance impressed on their souls.
Those who on earth contemplate the Wounds of His Face shall in heaven behold It radiant with glory.
He will defend them, preserve them and assure them of final perseverance.

Carmelite Monastery, Mobile, Alabama.
Imprimatur: + T. J. Toolen, D.D. LL.D. Archbishop-Bishop of Mobile-Birmigham

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Consecration to the Holy Family

Virgo Lauretana

O Holy Family of Nazareth,
model of every family,
we bless and venerate you with joyful hearts
and consecrate ourselves to you
in order that our home be
the dwelling place of the presence of God,
in mutual and generous love.

O Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
who from the Loreto hills irradiate on the world
the light of faith and the power of love,
and guide it day by day
on the path of the Gospel
and of the Beatitudes.

Si stampi: Loreto, 1 giugno 1980
Ponte P. Silvio Vic. Gen.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary


Queen of the most holy Rosary, in these times of such brazen impiety, manifest thy power with the signs of thine ancient victories, and from thy throne, whence thou dost dispense pardon and graces, mercifully regard the Chruch of thy Son, His Vicar on earth, and every order of clergy and laity who are sore oppressed in the mighty conflict. Do thou, who art the powerful vanquisher of all heresies, hasten the hour of mercy, even though the hour of God's justice is every day provoked by the countless sins of men. For me who am the least of men, kneeling before thee in supplication, do thou obtain the grace I need to live righteously upon earth and to reign among the just in heaven. While in company with all the Christians of the world, I salute and proclaim thee as Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.
Our Lady, Queen of the Living Rosary, pray for us!

The Living Rosary, Dickinson, Tx. USA