 GLORY BE TO JESUS CHRIST!Dear Apostles and Benefactors of the Living Rosary,
During this season of Advent, we wait and watch and pray. From the beginning to end, our lives are one of ceaseless combat. Our mission during our earthly sojourn is to become saints. This is an awesome challenge which we cannot achieve without God’s help. We need not go in search of great penances or accomplish feats of strength or valor, nor is there need to use instruments of discipline, make long pilgrimages or wear a hair-shirt. Our daily life produces ample opportunity for penances. We must generously live life as God has planned it for us with great love! We must make the “FIAT” of Mary our own fiat to all that God asks of us. If we embrace our crosses with great love, they will take wings that will carry us aloft! Love of the Eucharist, Love of Souls and Love of Immolation: These will be our wings! Christ is born poor, tiny and helpless, clothed in the garment of our fallen nature. He spent 30 years obedient to Jesus and Mary. No one has ever been more human than Jesus. Think of His compassion for the sick, suffering, poor, sad and feeble. He seemed unable to resist sorrow. All who came to Him were healed. Jesus came to wipe away tears, ease the wounds of souls, and lighten the crosses which we all must bear. He was crucified for us so that His Eucharistic Heart might reign. We fail to appreciate Jesus in the Holy Eucharist because our faith is weak and a ‘burning love’ is lacking in us. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a daily Christmas. The crib is the altar, the hands of Our Lady, the hands of the priest. The altar is Calvary. The altar is Mount Tabor. There is no miracle that can possibly be compared with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus remains in the Tabernacle as in the prison of Caiaphas, crowned with the thorns of sacrilege, loneliness, desertion, treacheries and hate. Yet, He will ever continue to be our Prisoner of Love! The harvest is great and the laborers are few. It is a tremendous and sweet duty to love God and love our neighbor. We have a serious obligation of bringing souls to Christ. In His Wisdom, Our Lord permitted that there would be rich and poor, in order to save the rich by obliging them to be generous and charitable to the poor. Those who are rich in grace must liberally share with the many who are suffering from want of spiritual light and help. Everyone is called to be an apostle, most especially those who are suffering, carrying heavy crosses, and who are poor, weak and alone. Fastened with Christ to the Cross of suffering, we can convert sinners, purify, make reparation and save the souls of our children, our spouse and our parents. Those who suffer are the favorites of Christ, for their hidden martyrdom of love is the greatest apostolate! We must never be discouraged. Difficulties are indispensable to divine works. Our confidence must be placed in God, not in ourselves. We must become men and women of prayer. Through the Eucharist, our lives will be transformed into a radiating power and our homes into a tabernacle of peace and of Christian happiness. May the Kingdom of Christ come within us and through us, to the world! May we shake off the shroud of indifference and coldness, a sin which pierces the Heart of our Savior! The more true love for Mary progresses and intensifies, the brighter will glow the Eucharistic flame. Devotion to Mary and love of the Tabernacle are one and the same. Love of Mary is the best preparation for the Triumph of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Let us ask Our Divine Infant Jesus to grant us the privilege to love Our Sweet Mother this Christmas night with His own divine Heart. During the month of December and through the Christmas octave, we will remember at the Holy Altar all of those whose names have been mailed in, our sick and suffering members, the religious and lay apostles, the young and the old. May the peace of the Holy Family reign in your hearts and in your homes! I impart to you all, my priestly blessing: + In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
|
|
|
| Pauline’s Offering:“My hope is in Jesus Christ! My Only Treasure is the Cross!”
“The role given to me is most excellent and my heritage is a precious one, indeed! I will bless the Lord unceasingly in life and in death. May the very just, high and holy Will of God be done in all things! May It be praised and glorified forever! I adore Thee, Will of my God, Will of my Creator, Will of my Savior, Will of my King, Will of my Brother, Will of my Spouse, Will of my Friend, Will of my Sponsor, Almighty Will, fertile Will, Will of generous Love, Will infinitely wise, Will full of tenderness, Will full of devotion, Will generous, warming, constant and kind! It matters little therefore, O all-powerful and all lovable Will of my Savior, if Thou takest from me all earthly goods, reputation, honor, health, life itself and that, through humiliations, Thou shouldst make me go down into the lowest depths. It matters little if, instead of water, I find only mud in the deep pit of the valley and if I am plunged over my head in mud, provided I find under this mud the hidden fire of divine love, and if I am so inflamed with this love that, when it draws me forth, I may at length offer Thee my holocaust, and consume myself entirely in love for Thee and for souls. I long to water the Altar of sacrifice with my tears and my blood. Oh, I shall, indeed be blessed a thousand times if, in thus dying for Thy Holy Will and my brethren, I can say: It is for this I was born! My task is finished! Jesus, Priest and Victim, living Host, Sacrifice and Sanctifier, I unite the sacrifice of my life to the sacrifice of the Cross, the tears that I shed to the Blood Thou didst shed for me. In Thy Wounds, I find life. From Thee alone, I receive strength. My heart is ready, O Lord, my heart is ready! I seek nothing but Thy Will, and aspire for nothing save its perfect accomplishment, this being Thy glory and my happiness. I await all from Thee, my God, Thou art faithful, and will never suffer a soul to be tempted beyond its strength. I believe, I shall not stumble in the way of the cross, nor cause Thee shame when the supreme hour comes. I have always trusted Thee and not myself. I confess that I am weakness itself, and that I naturally shrink from suffering and from the rage of the wicked. The cries of nature do not disturb me, nor do I dread the time when I must pay my debt of love to Thy merciful justice. I have placed my hope in Thy mercy, which surpasses all Thy works. I accept Thy chalice as a delicious cup of Thy sweetest blessings. I confess myself to be utterly unworthy of drinking it. It is from Thee that I await my own transformation and the consumption of my sacrifice for Thy greater glory and for the salvation of my brethren, especially for those who have been the cause of making me merit in Thy sight. To Thee dear Savior, I commend those to whom I remain in debt. I have sacrificed all for Thee, and trust that Thy friends will fulfill all justice for me after my death.” This life offering made by Pauline so often in life, was placed in the shadow of the Tabernacle, under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 23, 1856. |
|
|
|
“I have loved Jesus Christ more than all the earth, and for the love of Him, I have loved more than myself all those who are in travail and pain.I have looked at Him, I have loved Him, and I have understood; that is why I forgive all.” Ven. Pauline-Marie Jaricot My hope is in Jesus, my only treasure is the Cross … I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall be always in my mouth. I adore the Will of my God. What does it matter to me, O beloved and loveable Will of God, if Thou shalt take from me all earthly goods, reputation, honor, health and life? What does it matter that Thou shalt make me descend into the depth of humiliations? What does it matter if only I find the hidden fire of Thy heavenly Love? How happy I should be if I could die for Thee and for my fellow creatures! Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim, I unite the sacrifice of my life and the cross I carry to Thy Blood shed for me. I shelter myself in Thy wounds and I expect all strength from Thee. My heart is ready, O Lord; my heart is ready. I only wish to do all for Thy greater glory. I rely upon Thy strength when the supreme moment comes and not upon my own. I have placed all my hopes in Thy mercy. MARY, O MY MOTHER, I AM THINE! LITANY TO VEN. PAULINE-MARIE JARICOT: Lord, have mercy on us. Holy Mary, pray for us. LET US PRAY: Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. Heart of Jesus, hear us. Pray for us, O Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. LET US PRAY Almighty and merciful God, Who hast chosen a humble virgin, Marie Pauline of Jesus Christ, the poor one of Mary, to found the great Catholic works of the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary, and who hast wished in the midst of humiliations, trials and persecutions to purify her works, deign to hasten the day when the Church will recognize publicly her saintly life. We pray that, by her example of patience and love for the Cross, her life-time prayer will be realized in its fullness: “PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH IN ALL ITS PURITY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD!” Amen
|
|
|
Tags: Association, Catholic, Filomena, Living, Philomena, Philomene, Rosary, Saint, Universal