Category: Catholic Saints

The Value of Little Souls

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Although ths essay reposted just this past February, I present it today to honor St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, whose very littleness proved great in the eyes of God our Father.

“It is God’s Will that in this world souls shall dispense to each other,
by prayer, the treasures of Heaven”
(Saint Thérèse of Lisieux )

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux has practical advice for us; a welcome remedy for the jarring cacophony of voices clamoring to be heard today. One of the many dangers of this time is that the devil foments discord among us. But Saint Thérèse, the Little Flower of Carmel shows us how to foil satan and turn criticism and other causes of dissension into channels of grace.

The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
The Imperfect Soul

“That you should be found imperfect is just what is best. Here is your harvest. . . . Should earthly creatures think you devoid of holiness, they rob you of nothing, and you are none the poorer: it is they who lose. For is there anything more sweet than the inward joy of thinking well of our neighbor? . . .“As for myself I am glad and rejoice, not only when I am looked upon as imperfect, but above all when I feel that it is true. Compliments, on the contrary, do but displease me.” . . . “Honors are always dangerous. What poisonous food is served daily to those in high positions! What deadly fumes of incense! A soul must be well detached from herself to pass unscathed through it all.”

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The Spirits Who Guard Us 2023

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Today  we honor our holy and powerful guardian angels. There are many testimonies of saints, such as Saint Gemma Galgani and the great Saint Dominic who were favored with a particular ability to converse and interact with their angel guardians.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

But given the assault which is occurring to our priests, perhaps it would profit us to recount the lovely story of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which we take from  “All About The Angels”, by Father Paul O’Sullivan.

When St. Thomas Aquinas, who came of a very noble and illustrious family . . . joined the Dominican Order, his family was furious at his action. His brothers, who were officers in the army of Emperor Frederick, seized him and put him in prison in one of the family castles.
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St. Mary Magdalen in the Passion of the Church 2023

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Today is the Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalen, model for penitents.

Of Mary Magdalen, Lacordaire said,

“Mary Magdalene touches both sides of our life: the Sinner anoints us with her tears, the Saint with her tenderness, the one soothes our wounds at the feet of Christ, the other tries to exalt us to the ravishment of her ascension.”

We often see Magdalen at the feet of Christ. Luke tells us that Mary sat at the feet of Christ, listening to Him, while Martha complained. When Jesus returned to Bethany to raise Mary’s brother, Lazarus, she ran to Him and cast herself at His feet. Before His Passion, she knelt at His feet and anointed them. At the Crucifixion, she stood at His feet, beside Our Lord’s most Blessed Mother, comforting Mary and adoring her Master. Each time, Our Lord defended her. “Mary has chosen the better part.” After the anointing, “Let her alone. That which she has done will be told in memory of her.” But note this change: on that glorious Easter Sunday, when she discovered her Risen Lord, she threw herself at His feet once again, but this time Our Lord pointed her to their heavenly Father, “I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.” Thus, we see Our Lord urging Mary to aspire to a higher union, dying with Christ in contemplation to rise with Him in eternal glory.

Penitent to Contemplative

Father Alban Butler’s Life of Mary Magdalen tells us that the Magdalen is the first in a “new order of souls”, which he describes as a school of love by the martyrdom of the heart which by learning to die to the world and to inordinate self-love, lives to God and His pure love. This happiness we attain to, by being united in spirit to Jesus crucified, as Magdalen was at the foot of His cross. She suffered by love what He suffered in His body by the hands of the Jews. The same cross crucified Jesus and Magdalen in Him and with Him. … so that she could say in a twofold sense; “My love is crucified.”

Mary Magdalen Patron of Penitents

“My Love is Crucified.”

She spent the last thirty years of her life in contemplation of her Beloved, in the wilderness of Provence, where legend has it that she was elevated from her grotto to the peak of the mountain seven times each day until she died. What saw she from her celestial heights?

In Sacred Scripture, of all the figures which surrounded Our Lord Jesus Christ, it appears as though Mary Magdalen has chosen the surest path to His heart. Why did Our Lord choose such a notorious sinner as Mary Magdalen? Was it not to show us His unfailing mercy towards repentant sinners? Some may read this and think that they at least have never been such a reprobate as Mary Magdalen. Well, perhaps we each of us should rather say,

“My Jesus, mercy, for I have never repented of my sins so completely, so fervently as Magdalen. My faith has been lukewarm at best!”

Many great spiritual writers assure us that no sinner goes to hell without damning himself by refusing to repent and refusing to beseech God’s mercy. But see the Magdalen! She, like St. Peter, never ceased to offer reparation; most of all, never ceased to offer herself as an oblation of love to Him whi is Love eternal. For it is all about love. Mary Magdalen great love for Jesus Christ, became an abyss of love in imitation of Him.  It is a fruitful practice to consider both the Blessed Virgin Mary, most pure and perfect Virgin Mother of God and Mary Magdalen, wretched repentant sinner, so different these two and yet united in their tremendous love for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

And perhaps now is a good time to ask Mary Magdalen, patroness of penitents, to intercede for us that God grant us a generous and sacrificial heart like hers. May her generous heart embrace our small and cautious hearts and free us of that most pernicious disorder of these times, indifference to the sufferings of Christ in the Passion of His Church.

Saint Mary Magdalen, teach us the martyrdom of love, that we may die daily to the world and to our own self-love in order to be consumed in the fire His love.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

previously posted on July 22, 2020 by evensong

Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.

From the Heart of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 2023

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On her feast day, we offer a few excerpts from the Autobiography which St. Margaret Mary Alacoque wrote in obedience to her superiors. Her flawless humility and obedience made her the perfect choice to reawaken devotion to Our Lord’s most Sacred Heart, and this extraordinary saint still inspires us with her devotion to serving Our Lord with mortifications and the most perfect obedience.

When you read the following words of this saint, do not get disheartened, but instead be thankful that we have Our Lady of the Rosary to keep us close to her Immaculate Heart. For she leads her children securely to the safety of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we know that He has reserved a place for her children.

St. Margaret Mary’s heroic virtues seem to place her on a hopelessly high level, too far above us to even aspire towards, but she arrived there by love, and so we too, petition our Blessed Mother for the grace to ever love her Son more and more. We beg her for generous, sacrificial hearts. The following is a personal favorite; it’s useful to review from time to time to ward off self-indulgence and renew our resolution. In her own words . . .

Saint Margaret Mary’s Recipe for Success:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee!† . He willed that I should receive everything as coming from Him without procuring anything for myself; that I should abandon all to Him without disposing of anything; and that I should thank Him for suffering as well as for enjoyment.

† . On the most painful and humiliating occasions I should consider that I not only deserved these, but even greater ones, and should offer the pain I experienced for the persons who afflicted me.

† . Further, I was always to speak of Him with great respect, of my neighbor with esteem and compassion, and of myself never, or, at least, briefly and with contempt, unless for His glory He should make me do otherwise.

† . I was ever to attribute all the good and the glory to His sovereign Greatness, and all the evil to myself; never to seek consolation out of Him, and even when He granted it to me, to renounce and offer it to Him.

† . I was to cling to nothing, to empty and despoil myself of everything, to love nothing but Him, in Him and for the love of Him, to see in all things naught but Him and the interests of His glory in complete forgetfulness of myself.

† . And though I was to do all my actions for Him, He willed that His Divine Heart should have a special part in each one. For example, when at recreation, I was to offer Him Its share by enduring sufferings, humiliations, mortifications and the rest, with which He would always provide me, and which on that account I was to accept willingly.

† . In like manner in the refectory I was to give up for Its satisfaction whatever was most to my taste, and so on with all my other exercises.

† . He likewise forbade me to judge, accuse or condemn anyone but myself.

† . He gave me many other instructions, and as I was astonished at their number, He told me to fear nothing, for He was a good Master, being as powerful to have His teaching carried into effect, as He was all-wise both to teach and to govern well.

† . Thus I can affirm that, whether I would or not, I was obliged to do what He wished in spite of my natural repugnance.

Note that Our Lord requires that Saint Margaret Mary consider herself deserving of painful humiliations, that she was to consider herself with contempt. This is a bit “off-putting” to modern ears, isn’t it? That is meant to show you how far we have strayed! We all tend to feel entitled to think well of ourselves and only desire to follow devotions that reassure our very sensitive natures with flattery and cloying platitudes. But Saint Margaret Mary, like Saint John of the Cross, understands that the only way forward is through “less of me, less of me and more of Thee, until all is Thee.”

THE PRAYER OF ST. MARGARET MARY

My God, I offer Thee Thy well-beloved Son, in thanksgiving for all the benefits I have received from Thee. I offer Him as my adoration, my petition, my oblation and my resolutions; I offer Him as my love and my all. Receive, O Eternal Father, this offering for whatever Thou willest of me, since I have nothing to offer which is not unworthy of Thee, except Jesus, my Saviour, Whom Thou hast given me with so much love. Amen.

CONSECRATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS (Composed by St. Margaret Mary.)

O Sacred Heart of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.

I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O most merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited.

I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee. I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite goodness, grant that my name be engraved on Thee, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants. Amen.

PRAYER TO ST. MARGARET MARY

O St. Margaret Mary, permitted by the Sacred Heart of Jesus to become partaker of Its divine treasures, obtain for us, we beseech thee, from that adorable Heart, the graces that we need. We ask for them with boundless confidence; may the divine Heart be willing to grant them to us through thy intercession, so that once again It may, through thee, be glorified and loved. Amen.

(St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The Autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary TAN Books. Kindle Edition.)

Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.

† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.

St. Francis and the Rejected Remedy Part III

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Part III

A Darksome Light

St. Francis of Assisi: They Pretended to Love You So That They Might Leave You; Part III of the series from James Larson✝︎

Why should we believe that we have a right to the Traditional Latin Mass, which re-presents the supreme act of Poverty and Sacrifice by which Christ overcame the same world to which we are now prostituted?

In His Sermon on the Mount (the whole of which can be seen as an exposition of the meaning of the Beatitudes), Our Lord offered the following:

“For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt 6:21-24).

It might first seem to be a matter of total contradiction, or at least a paradoxical riddle, to speak of a “light that is darkness” – a “Darksome Light,” as it were. All contradiction is removed, however, if we perceive this phrase as referring to the relationship between intellect and will – between Truth, and the actual way in which we live, or fail to live, this truth in the world. “Faith, without works is dead,” proclaims St. James. It is thus entirely possible to “possess” the Faith, while yet denying it in the will, and therefore in what we love and pursue in this world. The possibility of a Darksome Faith is thus the inheritance of original sin, and the unnatural duplicity which is the tendency of all men. Continue reading “St. Francis and the Rejected Remedy Part III” →

Saint Francis and the Rejected Remedy II

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Part II

St. Francis of Assisi: They Pretended to Love You So That They Might Leave You

Introduction

One of the most difficult things for us to comprehend as faithful Catholics is how it can be possible for good men, even those who might be saints or those whom we might consider to be great Popes or other members of the hierarchy, to teach things which are very wrong (even to the extent of objective heresy), or to pursue pastoral policies and acts of government which produce evil fruits. And yet the history of the Church contains many such examples. Possibly the most succinct formulation of this phenomena is to be found in the words of Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana in the year 1594: ”For the time will come when the devils will try to demolish this Convent, availing themselves of both good and evil persons to achieve that end.”

What we are about to encounter in the following history of the betrayal of St. Francis and his ideal represents what might well be the most profound and extensive example in the Church’s history of Satan successfully using good men to accomplish his designs. Continue reading “Saint Francis and the Rejected Remedy II” →

Saint Francis: the Rejected Remedy

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Back in 2015, I posted about the prophecy of Saint Francis of Assisi that seems to have been fulfilled in the current occupant of the See of Peter.

Today, we begin a series based on the essays by James Larson †, entitled, “Saint Francis of Assisi: They Pretended to Love You So That They Might Leave You”.  Larson strongly believed that the roots of the spiritual decay underlying this present wreckage of the faith arose nearly eight centuries ago in the twofold rejection of Franciscan Poverty and Thomistic Metaphysics. Larson dealt extensively with the latter on his site, “The War Against Being“and he had begun writing on Saint Francis and the importance of the betrayal of true Franciscan poverty before his untimely death.

Today, we discuss Part I of Saint Francis: They Pretended to Love You So That They Might Leave You.

“The Thirteenth century was poised on the cusp of the Renaissance, and the flood of pagan concupiscence and intellectual pride which was about to inundate Christendom.

Two Gifts

“In the heart of this threatened world, God planted the two gifts of Franciscan Poverty and Thomistic Realism as Icons of Love and Truth, the vision of which would infuse every aspect of human culture with all that was necessary to protect it from these evils.

“These Gifts were rejected, and this rejection initiated a fundamental posture of prostitution towards the world which, like a slow-moving cancer, has eaten away at the heart of the Church for centuries. Wrongly, therefore, do we now wail at the post-Vatican II ruin of our Catholic world as though it were a sudden calamity unjustly inflicted. As we shall see, ours is a chastisement long merited.”

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The Secret of St. Patrick’s Prayer, 2023

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Some thoughts on prayer from Dom Eugene Boylan for today . . .

Jesus knows well our distaste for penance; He understands perfectly our dislike of suffering; nay, more, He sympathizes with us in these difficulties. True, He wishes us to help Him to carry His cross, but He also wishes to help us to do so. So sweet is His aid, so enthralling His companionship, that St. Teresa found that it was only the first of her crosses that was really hard; once she had embraced the nettle of her cross she found herself in close union with Jesus.

THE JOY OF THE CROSS

There is no joy in this life to equal that of sharing the cross with Jesus. It needs courage, it needs grace, it needs perhaps a special call; but the truth is that this path of suffering and of penance – penance, be it well understood, undertaken or accepted according to God’s will and not our own – is the road of highest joy, and the sure path to the heights of prayer. The importance of mortification is not so much that it hurts us, but that it gives Jesus a new life in us; we only put ourselves to death – that is what “mortification” means – in order to clear the way for Christ. That is at once the motive of mortification and its measure. If it only serves to make us more self–satisfied and proud, then it is no longer mortification of self; it is rather the mortification of Jesus.

The true principle of mortification was laid down by St. John the Baptist when he said: “He must increase, I must decrease.” Perhaps a somewhat far–fetched comparison may help to put this process in its true light. The bread and wine that are changed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord at Mass once graced the earth in a glory of purple and gold; they were cut down, beaten and bruised, ground and pressed out of all recognition. Not until many changes had been made in them could the priest say over them the words that would make them the Flesh and Blood of Christ.

Now, in so far as the Mass is a changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus – it is, of course, much more than that; it might be said that Our Lord says Mass with us and our lives as the bread and wine, but it is a Mass in which the grinding of the wheat and the pressing of the grape, the baking of the bread and the maturing of the wine, the offering of the Host and the oblation of the Chalice, the consecration of both and their conversion into the living Body and Blood of Christ, are all going on at the same time.

Every time that we deny ourselves in any way and to that extent offer ourselves to Jesus, He comes and takes possession of us to that same extent, and says: “This is My Body”.  More than that: He takes compassion on our cowardice, and sends us trials and humiliations that grind us and press us and make us into suitable bread and wine to become part of Himself. “My meat”, He said, “is to do the will of Him that sent Me”. So it is that everything done in accordance with the Divine will gives new life to Jesus in our souls, for He feeds on the doing of His Father’s will.

Every action we do, every suffering we undergo, whatever it be, as long as it is according to the will of God, is an act of communion with Jesus, an act that is no mere desire, but a positive advance in our union with Him; it gives Him new matter over which He can pronounce the saving words: “This is My Body.”
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St. Patrick’s Prophecy and the Message of Fatima

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St. Patrick and Sister Lucia of Fatima, Two Prophecies

Previously posted in March, 2015 and several times subsequently, by evensong

Let’s ignore, if possible, the discouraging aspects of the secular desecrations of great Saint Patrick’s Feast Day, and focus instead on his prophecy and how it may fit in with that of Fatima, and the Chastisement which pertains to us today.

St. Patrick is reputed by some accounts to have lived 120 years and to have raised no less than 33 people back to life, many of whom had been dead years. His penances, sacrifices, miracles and conversions were astounding and there are also a couple of prophecies attributed to him. The first is not of good provenance, but relates that the faith he brought to Ireland will blaze throughout the island for a period of time, then gradually dim and eventually appear to be almost extinguished, with but a few glowing embers; but then will gradually resurge, beginning in the north and eventually returning throughout Ireland. Although that might be of some comfort to faithful Catholics in Ireland today, today we will consider another prophecy of the great saint of Ireland.

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The Weight of Sin

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Yesterday’s post on sin by Ven. Archbishop Sheen was so well received that it seems an opportune time to second it with another essay, this time on the suffering which Our Blessed Lord endured because of sin; this time by St. John Henry Newman. I have added some emphasis. We begin with Our Lord’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane:

And now, my brethren, what was it (Jesus) had to bear, when He thus opened upon His soul the torrent of this predestinated pain? Alas! He had to bear what is well known to us, what is familiar to us, but what to Him was woe unutterable. He had to bear that which is so easy a thing to us, so natural, so welcome, that we cannot conceive of it as a great endurance, but which to Him had the scent and the poison of death. He had, my dear brethren, to bear the weight of sin; He had to bear our sins; He had to bear the sins of the whole world.

Sin is an easy thing to us; we think little of it; we cannot bring our imagination to believe that it deserves retribution, and, when even in this world punishments follow upon it, we explain them away or turn our minds from them. But consider what sin is in itself; it is rebellion against God; it is a traitor’s act who aims at the overthrow and death of his sovereign: it is that, if I may use a strong expression, which, could the Divine Governor of the world cease to be, would be sufficient to bring it about. Sin is the mortal enemy of the All-holy, so that He and it cannot be together; and as the All-holy drives it from His presence into the outer darkness; so, if God could be less than God, it is sin that would have power to make Him less.

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