Dignare Me Laudare Te, Virgo Sacrata

Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Gentleman Saint


(January 29th is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales on the traditional Roman sanctoral calendar.)


Go courageously to do whatever
you are called to do.
If you have any fears, say to your soul:
”The Lord will provide for us.”
If your weakness troubles you,
cast yourselves on God, and trust in him.
The apostles were mostly unlearned fishermen,
but God gave them learning enough
for the work they had to do.
Trust in him, depend on his providence;
fear nothing.

-St. Francis de Sales

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Love Fulfills, Lust Kills

I took part in my eighth March for Life this past Monday. It is always an amazing experience. There was definitely over 100,000 people taking part in this pro-life witness this year. I stood in a fixed location at the base of Capitol Hill, after walking from the rally location on Seventh Street, NW, and it took over an hour for the March to go by. It was awe-inspiring.



I got back in the March when the end of the crowd reached my location, and I creeped up the hill with the end of the line. I stopped briefly higher up the hill and talked to some people from Human Life International. I ran into my pastor there as well. After I finished talkin to the HLI people, I ran to catch up to end of the line. In front of the Supreme Court, I saw a large banner with the slogan "Love Fulfills, Lust Kills." I thought it was a really good slogan. I found out later that the group that made the banner is the new Catholic organization, Missionaries of the Eucharist. An acquaintance of mine is a leader in the organization. I ran into him later in front of the Supreme Court as the Silent No More women gave witness to how abortion damaged their lives. He gave me a flier that explains their slogan really well. The flier said:

Love fulfills.

If you want to know if it is true love, ask yourself - are you fulfilled?

The more you love someone, the more you want to give yourself to them.

The more fully they give themselves to you, the more you know they love you. It is only in mutual self-giving that love can be fostered.

Quote

"[My husband's] sexual addiction ruined the little bit of self-esteem I had back then and there wasn't much of it to begin with. It put me on guard for everything - I was afraid that if I wasn't perfect he would leave or stray." - Marsha Means, Living with Your Husbands Secret Wars, as quoted from www.blazinggrace.org

Lust Kills.

Lust is a desire to conquer something for the sake of personal pleasure.

Just as love gives and conversely receives, lust grabs and takes from the other.

Because a person is so concerned with getting pleasure, they will use things like condoms, birth control pills, and get abortions.

Analogy

Lustful sex is like trying to cuddle with a lion. No matter how one person wants intimacy, the lion has another thing in mind.

Fact

92% of women having abortions have used birth control. (cited from Allen Guttmacher Institute, Induced Abortion in the United States, May 2005, www.agi-usa.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

You owe it to yourself

Do you ever think that you have to give up part of who you are in order to get affection? Do you ever look at a person's body as an objct for pleasure? Challenge yourself to think against the norm. Discover how liberating it is to love fully, free from lust and contraception.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Catholic Masterpieces XII: Jesus Returning to Nazareth with His Parents



And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.
-Luke 2: 51-52

This is the first "Catholic Masterpiece" that was painted by an artist who wasn't Catholic. William Charles Thomas Dobson, the English painter of Jesus Returning to Nazareth with His Parents, was born after the schism of Henry VIII (he lived from 1817-1898; he should not be confused with the earlier English artist, William Dobson, who lived from 1610-1646). However, this painting portrays a very Catholic subject - the Holy Family, whose feast is observed on the Sunday within the octave of the Epiphany on the traditional Latin calendar.

The 1983 Marian House edition of Dom Guéranger's masterpiece, The Liturgical Year, describes the history of the feast (it was actually added after Dom Guéranger's death):

The Feast of the Holy Family is of recent origin. In 1663 Barbara d'Hillehoust founded at Montreal the Association of the Holy Family; this devotion soon spread and in 1893 Leo XIII expressed his approval of a feast under this title and himself composed part of the Office. The Feast was welcomed by succeeding Pontiffs as an effacious means for bringing home to the Christian people the example of the Holy Family at Nazareth, and by the restoration of the true spirit of family life, stemming, in some measure, the evils of present-day society. These motives led Benedict XV to insert the Feast in the universal Calendar, and from 1921 it has been fixed for this present Sunday.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who, becoming subject to Mary and Joseph, didst hallow home life by singular virtues; by the help of both, do thou grant that we may be taught by the example of thy Holy Family, and have fellowship with it forevermore.
-Collect for the Feast of the Holy Family

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The Psalter of Jesus: A Forgotten Prayer

(I posted this just over a year ago on an Internet forum. It's better that more people see it through this website as well.)

From Psalter of Jesus:

"The Jesus Psalter is believed to have been composed in England by the Brigittine monk, Richard Whitford, who called himself "the Wretch of Sion". This devotion was near and dear to the hearts of English Catholics in the days of persecution. It was printed and sold separately as early as 1520, though no copy from that period is known to have survived. In the oldest manuscripts and books the text of the prayer was usually given in English with the various notes and instructions in Latin."

From The Jesus Psalter, Arranged For Public Recitation By A Monk of Ampleforth Abbey, Carmel of Plymouth, 1995:

"RICHARD WHITFORD (or Whytford) belonged to a family of substance at Whitford in Flintshire. He was a Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge (The Angel of Syon, p. 34). Afterwards he was received into the family of Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, and by him was made his chaplain during the latter years of Henry VII. While with the bishop he contracted a close friendship with [St.] Thomas More, who sought spiritual counsel at his hands. Later on he determined to leave the world, and restored the Order of St. Bridget in the well-known Monastery of Syon. In his writings he styles himself the 'wretch of Syon.' He lived to see himself turned out of his cell, and the cell itself turned to profane use. On his expulsion he was received into the house of William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who was extremely charitable to those who suffered for the Faith. The time of his death is not known, but he certainly lived until the accession of Queen Mary, and during the intervening years occupied himself in writing books, as if he were still in his peaceful cell. The Salter of Jesus (in Latin and English) is one of his later writings: it was widely spread among the Catholics of England in the days of persecution, and was a favourite daily devotion with many of them."

A Primer on the Psalter of Jesus:

The Psalter of Jesus gets its name from from the number of times the Holy Name of Jesus is said when it is prayed. It is said at least 10 times with each of the 15 petitions, bringing the total number over 150 (there are 150 Psalms in the Books of Psalms). I can personally attest that this prayer, due to the number of times the Holy Name is said, and the humility of the petitions, is a very powerful one. I learned about it from an English priest who offered Mass on the Feast of the Holy Name in 2004, and gave a homily which mentioned the Psalter of Jesus.

The Psalter of Jesus is divided into three parts; each consisting of five Petitions. Each part is preceded by the reading of Phil. 2: 10, 11. (In the online edition, the following version of the reading is used: "At the Name of Jesus let every knee bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things in hell; and let every tongue confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.")

Each of the petitions is concluded by the following prayers:

Have mercy on all sinners, Jesus, I beseech Thee; turn their vices into virtues, and, making them true observers of Thy law, and sincere lovers of Thee, bring them to bliss in everlasting glory.

Have mercy also on the souls in purgatory, for Thy bitter Passion, I beseech Thee, and for Thy glorious Name Jesus.

O Blessed Trinity, one Eternal God, have mercy on me.

The Our Father and Hail Mary is then said (I say them in Latin).

At the end of each part, the following prayers are said before the Our Father and Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed is said after them:

Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death. Even to the death of the Cross.

Hear these my petitions, O my most merciful Saviour, and grant me grace so frequently to repeat and consider them, that they may prove easy steps, whereby my soul may ascend to the knowledge, love, and performance of my duty to Thee and my neighbour, through the whole course of my life. Amen.

The Fifteen Petitions of the Jesus Psalter

Part I:

First Petition: Jesus, have mercy on me.
Second Petition: Jesus, help me.
Third Petition: Jesus, strengthen me.
Fourth Petition: Jesus, comfort me.
Fifth Petition: Jesus, make me constant.

Part II:

Sixth Petition: Jesus, enlighten me with spiritual wisdom.
Seventh Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to fear Thee.
Eighth Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to love Thee.
Ninth Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to remember my death.
Tenth Petition: Jesus, send me here my purgatory.

Part III:

Eleventh Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to avoid bad company.
Twelfth Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to call on Thee for help.
Thirteenth Petition: Jesus, make me persevere in virtue.
Fourteenth Petition: Jesus, grant me grace to fix my mind on Thee.
Fifteenth Petition: Jesus, give me grace to order my life towards mine eternal welfare.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus


El Greco - The Adoration of the Name of Jesus (c. 1578)


This year, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus falls on January 2nd (today) (according to the traditional Latin rite calendar), since January 1st was on a Sunday, and it is on January 3rd (tomorrow) on the post-1970 calendar.

Here are some links about this feast and the devotion:

Devotion to the Holy Name (Fish Eaters)
The Adoration of the Name of Jesus (El Greco) (about the painting above)
The Holy Name of Jesus(from a sermon by my spiritual father, St. Francis de Sales, and posted by SSPX Asia)

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord (Octave Day of Christmas)


The Circumcision, by Luca Signorelli


And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.
-Luke 2: 21

O God, who, by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary, hast bestowed upon mankind the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may evermore experience the intercession in our behalf of her through whom we have been found worthy to receive the author of life, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
(Collect from Traditional Latin Missal for Octave Day of Christmas)