 Dear
Apostle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,Thank you for your generous
support of our missionary efforts throughout the whole world. We are keeping
you and your family most especially in our prayers. We beg God to bless and
protect you from every evil and all harm.
In a world in which materialism has come strangely to dominate the lives
of millions, the dignity and apostolate of the Christian Mother is
tragically obscured. Domestic society is being attacked by political systems
which, with false arrogance, claim authority over all social relations and
by ‘WOULD-BE’ educators who seek to destroy the natural and divine rights
and functions of the family. The Good Shepherd elevated marriage to its
pristine purity and sanctified it with sacramental graces. The apostolate of
the Christian Mother has grave responsibilities, with holy reaches and
sublime dignity. Reverence for the dignity of motherhood is the foundation
upon which nations rest. The unfathomed mystery of life has been placed in
woman’s hands. Man is influenced by truth, but woman is guided by her heart.
At the core of a woman’s soul is motherhood. It is her greatest happiness
and, for this new life, she is ready to make stupendous sacrifices. Gentle
compassion is the duty of woman whose hand causes the works of charity and
mercy to grow immeasurably. Florence Nightingale was the guardian angel of
the sick. Ven. Pauline Jaricot was the heroine of social service. Woman is
the only one who gathers and holds together life’s broken pieces. The more
mankind withdraws from God, the more difficult it becomes to comprehend and
justly evaluate the proper worth of woman.
The ideal must be upheld that the married woman’s first priority is her
family. To them, she must give her love wholly and entirely. Whatever she
accomplishes outside the home, can never counterbalance the loss sustained
in the home by her absence. Modern woman has taken up every field of man’s
endeavor but, in the meantime, she has forgotten how to be a wife and
mother. A mother’s quiet labor in the home radiates out upon the entire
Nation. Without her, there can be no family and no home. Without her,
goodness, love and mercy vanish. Marriage IS the greatest adventure any
young couple can undertake. They conquer life by the power of love, and in
the fire of love fuse two hearts into one: seeking each to sanctify the
other, they walk together on the road to Heaven. Death alone can break their
sacred bond.
Marriage brings forth Human Life;
but united together on the Cross, it brings forth Divine Life!
I remain, one with you in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
PATTI MELVIN, Director ULRA
Let us pray for one another. |
|
FR. MATEO ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
(concluded)
DEVOTION TO THE HOLY TRINITY
Devotion to the most Holy Trinity is an exquisite fruit of love for the
Holy Sacrifice. In all my experiences, I have never met a person who had a
true devotion to the august Trinity, without having come to that devotion by
the royal road of the mediator of the Mass. Knowledge and love of the Father
and the Trinity are generated and developed in the radiance of the Altar.
This devotion will reach full growth on the day of glory in the song of the
angels, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts”: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Dominus Deus Sabbaoth.
Here, it would seem appropriate to speak briefly on the Feast of the Most
Holy Trinity, celebrated the first Sunday after Pentecost. More majestic
than the Heavens, the Blessed Trinity so full of glory that the feast should
be celebrated throughout the year. This brings to mind the beautiful
teaching that the great and marvelous Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity is
celebrated daily by heaven, earth and Purgatory together. This uninterrupted
and infinitely glorious celebration of the feast is the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass. The Church triumphant, militant and suffering is united in one
outburst of adoration, praise and love, singing in every Mass. “Glory to
God in the Highest”… “Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”
in the Sacrifice of the Altar.
No honor given to the Trinity is more divine, and hence none more worthy
of the Divinity, than the official hymn of praise sung by the High Priest
and Mediator, the Victim of the Holy Sacrifice. “I will praise thee upon the
harp,” says the Church. I praise thee on the divine harp, the Heart of the
High Priest, the adorable celebrant of the Mass. This is indeed the concert
of eternity transposed to the Altar in the muted notes of the Eucharistic
mystery. Holy Mass is the dawn of paradise, awaiting our death where its
full splendor be revealed.
The reality of heaven and the holy Altar is identical: substantial and
divine. The only difference lies in the vision and perfection of possession
of this treasured reality. Perfect vision, face to face, the eternal and
definitive possession of this divine reality, is the prerogative of the
citizens of heaven.
Priests should have an especial burning devotion for this ineffable
mystery. Their devotion should be extra-ordinary, based on solid doctrine
and genuine piety. Every priest should be a specialist on the Mass, for his
own sake and the good of souls. The priest is, what his Mass is. That priest
is fortunate who prepares his Mass carefully, lingers over it lovingly and
piously lives it with all his heart! “O Lord, give us many saintly priests
who understand this doctrine, but above all, priests who live it.”
We have said that the Mass is the perfect and adequate expiation of the
sins of the world. Recall the insistence our Lord made on the need for
loving reparation when He appeared to St. Margaret Mary. He asked that
fervent and solemn reparation be made for the horrible sacrileges committed
against Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Think also, that when Jesus gave
Himself to the Father, He looked down the centuries and saw the agents and
successors of Judas, yet willingly surrendered Himself to their will.
The race of Judas is not extinct. The traitors who betray their Master
with a kiss have been multiplied. It would have been better for them had
they never been born! St. Paul says that these sacrilegious souls eat and
drink their own damnation! (I Cor. 11:29). You cannot imagine what devilish
fury consumes them in their hatred for the Person of Jesus present under the
white veil of the Host. There, He is the centre and object of an exquisite
love. But there He is also the Victim of a hatred like that of the scribes
and priests who sarcastically vilified the Christ dying on Calvary. Have
mercy on them all, O king of love! Pardon and mercy, O Jesus—Victim, for all
the Judases! “May Thy pierced Heart take a merciful revenge, for they know
not what they do.”
Parce Domine, parce sacerdotibus tuis, parce populo tuo, me in
aeternum irascaris nobis … miserere! “Spare O Lord, spare Thy priests,
spare Thy people, lest Thine anger be enkindled against them forever… Have
mercy!”
To close this meditation, would that I had the inspiration and love of
him who sang the Lauda Sion Salvatorem!
If, in speaking of the majesty of Holy Sacrifice, my words had been so
full of conviction and so vibrant, that creation itself had been moved even
as it was by the death of the Savior on Good Friday; and if, being so moved,
it should begin a hymn of praise to the Creator hidden in the host, I would
stop the hymn, saying: “Ye sun, stars and volcanoes, valleys and oceans,
forests, vineyards and gardens, be still… do not sing, yet awhile! Angels
and saints of paradise you too, be silent for a while, do not sing!
“And you, Mary, Queen of creation, divine Mother of the King of kings,
kneeling at your feet, I beg a moment of silence, for the divine harp of the
Altar, Christ is about to resound with song to His Father. “Jesus-Victim,
Jesus-Mediator, Jesus-High Priest, sing, praise and bless the Most High in
the name of humanity purchased with Your Precious Blood!
Heavens, be still; earth, be quiet, while thousands of priests from pole
to pole elevate the Host and the Chalice.
And now, ye heavens and earth, hear the adorable harp vibrating. He sings
at the Altar the same hymn He sang on Good Friday on Calvary … O, Christ
Jesus, sing to the Trinity with the Church, and in the name of all creation:
“Glory to the Father, the all-powerful Love.”
“Glory to the Son, the Merciful Love!”
“Glory to the Holy Ghost, the Substantial Love!”
“Glory to the Most High in the heavens!”
“Glory to the Trinity on the Altar of the Holy Sacrifice!”
And heaven and earth would reply: “Hosanna! Hosanna! Amen.
FIAT! So let it be for ages without end!”
The fervent priest and the faithful Christian who knows the true
appreciation of the wonder of love and grace that is in the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass; who loves the Mass with a holy passion, and what is more
important, tries to live the Mass, is one of the predestined who is
fortunate in having found the Messiahs – Savior, even as the Samaritan woman
had found Him. But more than she, the Christian has received that same Jesus
into his heart — Jesus who is the fountain of living waters springing up
unto eternal life! Fervently beg the Holy Spirit to give you the divine
light which shines from a divine flame, in order that you may know most
thoroughly this divine gift par excellence — the Eucharistic Sacrifice and
the Eucharistic Sacrament.
Thus, by the ladder of Jacob, the arms of the High Priest and Victim of
the Altar, you will be lifted up to the throne of the Trinity. Go, then, and
with a filial boldness win over the Heart of the Father through the Heart of
the Son, the mediator of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! |
