Category: Penance and Reparation

The Love of Jesus in His Passion

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previously posted on : march 30, 2020  by : evensong

THE  LOVE  OF  JESUS  IN  HIS  PASSION

Today we offer a brief meditation on the generous, sacrificial love of Jesus by St. Francis de Sales for our Lenten reading.

The Eternal Father so loved the world that He gave it His only Son, and the Son so loved the will of His Father, who desired the salvation of human nature, that, without taking into account the meanness or contemptibleness of the thing, He willingly offered a prodigious price for its ransom, namely, His blood, His toils, and His life.

Thus Our Saviour, through love, devoted Himself to the will of His Father and to the redemption of the world. He advanced in every mystery of His Passion, saying: ‘O my Father, this loved human nature would be sufficiently redeemed by one of my tears, but that would not suffice for the reverence which I owe to Thy will and to my love. I wish, besides my agony in the Garden of Olives, to be scourged, to be crowned with thorns, to have my body reduced to ruins, and to become as a leper, without form or beauty.’
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A Litany for Penitents, 2021

“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son.”
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“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son.” ( Luke 15, 21)

Today we recall the importance of penance and prayer in the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Without sufficient reparation, this chastisement will only worsen until hell reigns on earth. It is too late to stop this chastisement which has been unleashed while our religious and lay leaders were distracting us with the usual secular solutions to the deeply spiritual war that is raging.

The three little shepherds of Fatima represented the three calls to respond to the  message of Our Lady of Fatima, that is, Francisco, the mystic, responded with his vocation to console Our Lord and Our Lady in penance and prayer, Jacinta’s calling was to save souls by her sacrifices, penances and prayers, while Lucia’s vocation was to obedience, chastity and poverty and the constant struggle to spread the truth about the message of Our Lady of the Rosary and devotion to her Immaculate Heart. The scarlet thread that runs throughout these three calls and unites them is  penance and prayer.

We offer here a Litany for Penitents. There are several variations online, but this seems most apt to our needs today. For private use.
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Reparation, A Secret of Mercy

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posted on : February 20, 2021  by : evensong

Today’s essay is from Frere Michel de la Saint Trinite, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II.

THE DEVOTION OF REPARATION:
A SECRET OF MERCY FOR SINNERS

After enumerating the five blasphemies which gravely offend His Most Holy Mother, Our Lord gave Sister Lucia the decisive explanation which allows us to penetrate into the secret of Her Immaculate Heart, which overflows with mercy for all sinners, even those who scorn and outrage Her:

“See, My daughter, the motive for which the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little reparation, and in consideration of it, to move My mercy to pardon souls who have had the misfortune of offending Her. As for you, always seek by your prayers and sacrifices to move My mercy to pity for these poor souls.”

“THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT”

Here we have one of the principal themes of the message of Fatima: since God has decided to manifest more and more His great design of love, which is to grant all graces to men through the mediation of the Immaculate Virgin, it seems that their refusal to submit with docility to what God wills is the fault which most gravely wounds His Heart, and for which He no longer finds in Himself any inclination to pardon them.
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True Repentance

“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son.”
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previously posted on : february 28, 2021  by : evensong

During Lent we speak of repentance, do we give much thought to the true meaning of repentance?  Let’s see what the  Curé d’Ars, St. Jean Vianney can tell us:

REPENTANCE

“Woe is me, for I have sinned so much during my life.”
Thus spoke St. Augustine, when he thought over his past life, which he had spent incessantly in the abominable vice of impurity. As often as the thought occurred to him, his heart was torn and devoured by repentance. “Oh, my Lord,” he exclaimed, “I have lived without loving Thee; oh, my Lord, how many precious years have I lost! Deign, O Lord, I implore Thee, to efface from Thy memory my past faults!”

Oh, precious tears, O salutary contrition, which made of such a great sinner so great a saint! Oh, how quickly does a really contrite heart regain the friendship of God! Ah, would to God that every time we let our sins pass before our mind’s eye, we could say with the repentant St. Augustine: “Ah, woe is me. I have sinned much during my life; have mercy on me, O Lord! ” How soon would we alter our mode of living!
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The Value of Little Souls

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previously posted on March 28, 2020 by evensong

“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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From evensong with love, 2023

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an earlier version of this post appeared in december, 2016 and in subsequent years in various versions.

In this twilight of our Christian era, the darkness gathers. Eventually it will bring a purifying chastisement and a rebirth of the Faith.

“Time ill spent is lost forever and what degree of love we have achieved at the time of our death is what we shall have throughout eternity.”
(Sister Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.S.)

My daily readings are from “Divine Intimacy“, by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. In his reading titled, ”Let Us Make Good Use of Time.” Father Gabriel reminds us that time ill spent is lost forever and that what degree of love we have achieved at the time of our death is what we shall have throughout eternity.

He then quotes Sister Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D. , who was under his spiritual direction, “We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity.” We do that by love, by doing every smallest task entrusted to us, with all the love of which we are capable. Friends, this is the way of spiritual childhood, the way forward for us in this challenging new year, 2017 that awaits us. Let us read Father Gabriel’s writing now through the eyes of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
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A Headless Thing, 2023

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previously posted on : july 26, 2021  by : evensong

Thought for today:
“The already schism-split and heresy-ridden Roman Catholic body will then be a headless thing,
a complicated machine exploding in all directions . . .”

In his book, “The Keys of This Blood”, Father Malachi Martin:

“The day that a sizable body of Roman Catholics, clergy and laity, become convinced—rightly or wrongly—that the then occupant of the apostolic throne of Peter is not, perhaps never was, a validly elected pope, that day the presently continuous piece-by-piece deterioration of the organizational structure will be quickened into a muffled collapse of the entire organization. The already schism-split and heresy-ridden Roman Catholic body will then be a headless thing, a complicated machine exploding in all directions into fragments, because its secure casing and capstone cover were shattered. Continue reading “A Headless Thing, 2023” →

Saint John Bosco’s Feast Day, 2023

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previously posted January 31, 2020 by evensong

Today is the feast day of good Saint John Bosco, a favorite of mine and so we have a few of his prophecies which are quite apt for this especial time. To introduce them, another brief quote, this time from Apocalypse (Chapter 6, 9-14).

“When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

“And white robes were given to every one of them one; and it was said to them, that they should rest for a little time, till their fellow servants, and their brethren, who are to be slain, even as they, should be filled up.

“And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood: And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: And the heaven departed as a book folded up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places.”

The above is something to think about. For more than 10 years I have written about it but few give heed. And now for St. John Bosco; first, his Dream (vision) of the Two Pillars.
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The Eucharistic Vision of Our Lady of Knock, 2023

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A WARNING AGAINST SUPPRESSION OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE

This post from 2017 originally; restored as part of ongoing efforts to rebuild the site and maintain it as a an archive when my task is over.  An update is posted on our “About Us” page. May Our Lady of the Rosary keep you all close to her Immaculate Heart this New Year of Our Lord, 2023. Thank you for reading.

Today, we commemorate the eloquently silent apparition of Our Lady at Knock, Ireland, August 21, 1879. By her silence, Our Lady emphasised at once her displeasure that her message at La Salette was being attacked, and as many believe, she was pointing to the silence recounted in chapter 8 of the Apocalypse.  But there is still another reason for the silence – it is a warning against silencing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and outrages against the Holy Eucharist and it beckons us with mysterious silence towards the visions of the Apocalypse.

The Holy Ghost inspired St. John’s vision in such a way that through it, God revealed to us a glimpse of His own vision, not a linear accounting of events, and each subsequent generation could learn from its warnings and be comforted in its victories. In addition to sacred scripture, Our Heavenly Father guides us by the revelations He grants us down the centuries. Knock is one of the major apparitions, which are: Our Lady of Good Success in Ecuador, The Sacred Heart of Jesus at Paray le Monial, France, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception at Rue du Bac, France, Our Lady of La Salette, France, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Lourdes, France, Our Lady at Knock, Ireland, Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, Portugal,  and Our Lady of Akita, Japan.  Those apparitions provide a necessary complement to our understanding of the Apocalypse.

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Novena for the Holy Name of Jesus, 2023

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previously posted January 1, 2021 by evensong

Today, we offer a grand old standby to begin the New Year right – St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Novena to the Holy Name of Jesus. This past September, we posted “The Language of Hell“ about blasphemy against Jesus and had intended to post a follow-up but got sidetracked. This Novena is a beginning, but much more needs to be said about the need for reparation and the great graces to be gained, by devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Towards the end of this very long post (sorry about that!) please see the highlighted note on the plenary Indulgence at the hour of death.

NOVENA TO THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

FIRST DAY

THE GIVING OF THE GLORIOUS NAME OF JESUS

Consider, devout soul, that the holy name of Jesus is not a name invented by man, but it comes from God, who wished it to be made known by the archangel Gabriel, as St. Luke testifies: “His name was called Jesus . . . by the angel.”  St. Bernard also says that this name is not a simple figure of things, a shadow without reality, but it is a palpable truth. Jesus is a name that expresses perfectly the hypostatic union of the divine nature and of the human nature. The world could not have been saved by a pure God, because God is impassible, nor by a pure man, because man is limited and finite.

This is the reason why the holy name Jesus, which signifies the same as Saviour, as the angel declares, has been given to the Son of God, made man through Mary, in order to show that both as God and man He accomplished the redemption of mankind by delivering them from the slavery of sin at the same time. In short, Jesus is a name that comprises infinity, eternity, immensity, wisdom, justice, mercy, and all the adorable perfections of God. What happiness for us to be reconciled with the eternal Father through the merits of this divine Mediator who has had the goodness to pay our debt at the cost of His precious blood!

Adorable Jesus! If Thou hast sacrificed Thyself to deliver Thy people from the hands of their enemies in order to acquire an eternal name, it would be but fair that this name should surpass and eclipse every other name, even that of the seraphim, as St. Paul says: “Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they.” And if the eternal Father has wished that this name should be that of His Son, mayest Thou grant that, having experienced on earth its happy effects, we may arrive at the complete happiness in heaven to praise Thee and to bless Thee for all eternity.

In honor of the giving of the glorious name of Jesus, we pray:

Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be.

Let us pray.
God, who didst appoint Thine only-begotten Son Saviour of mankind, and didst command that He should be called Jesus, mercifully grant that we may enjoy the vision of Him in heaven, whose holy Name we venerate on earth. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, from this time forth and evermore!
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