Storm Prayer

The Blessing of Saint Benedict Joseph Labre

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Jesus Christus Rex gloriae venit in pace.
Deus homo factus est.
Verbum caro factum est.
Christus de Maria Virgine natus est.
Christus per medium illorum ibat in pace.
Christus crucifixus est.
Christus mortuus est.
Christus sepultus est.
Christus resurrexit.
Christus ascendit in coelum.
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.
Christus ab omni fulgure nos defendat.
Jesus nobiscum est.
Pater noster - Ave Maria - Gloria Patri

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Jesus Christ, the King of glory, came in peace.
God was made man.
The Word was made flesh.
Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.
Christ passed through the midst of them in peace.
Christ was crucified.
Christ died.
Christ was buried.
Christ is risen.
Christ ascended into heaven.
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands.
From every lightening bolt may Christ defend us.
Jesus is with us.
Our Father - Hail Mary - Glory be

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In June 1771, early in his career as a pilgrim recluse, Saint Benedict Joseph visited Fabriano, Italy, to venerate the relics of Saint Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolese monks. Being treated with kindness by a local family, and desiring to thank his benefactors, he wrote out in Latin this set of aspirations, drawn from, or inspired by Holy Scripture, the Creeds, the Papal Laudes, and his own piety, exhorting his hosts to pray in these words for protection against thunder, lightening and earthquake. Just a few years later, during his lifetime, a devastating earthquake did strike Fabriano, but the home of this family and the houses immediately around it stood firm and unharmed. Subsequently, copies of this blessing were printed and distributed at Fabriano.

Saint Benedict Joseph, pray for us.

Innocent Confidence

Innocent people are joyful. The unhappy world hates and aborts children, who are entirely innocent.

They have poured out the blood of the Saints as water, round about Jerusalem. And there was none to bury them. Avenge, O Lord, the blood of Thy saints, which has been shed upon the earth.
- Tract for the Mass of the Holy Innocents (Psalm 78: 3, 10)
 
“Flowers of the martyrs! Pray for us, that we may obtain child-like simplicity of heart, whence comes that unreserved confidence in God, which leads man to the perfect accomplishment of His holy will. May we bear the cross with patience, when He sends it, and desire nothing but His holy will.”
- Dom Guéranger

Matthew 2:13-18
As soon as they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Rise up, take with thee the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt; there remain, until I give thee word. For Herod will soon be making search for the child, to destroy him.
He rose up, therefore, while it was still night, and took the child and his mother with him, and withdrew into Egypt, where he remained until the death of Herod,
in fulfilment of the word which the Lord spoke by his prophet, I called my son out of Egypt.
Meanwhile, when he found that the wise men had played him false, Herod was angry beyond measure; he sent and made away with all the male children in Bethlehem and in all its neighbourhood, of two years old and less, reckoning the time by the careful enquiry which he had made of the wise men.
It was then that the word spoken by the prophet Jeremy was fulfilled:
A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and great mourning; it was Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because none is left.

Queen of Heaven and Earth

Queenship of Mary

From Vespers for the Sunday of the Ascension (Ukrainian Greek Catholic):

Who would not call you blessed, O Virgin most holy?
 
Who would not sing a hymn of praise to the glory of your giving birth without pain or travail?
 
The Only-begotten Son Himself, begotten of the Father before all ages, was made flesh out of you in a manner that cannot be explained, O Woman most pure!
 
And for our sake, He Who is God by nature assumed the nature of a man.
 
He is not divided into two persons;
 
He is understood to have two natures without commixion or confusion.
 
O noble and blessed Woman, intercede with Him that He may mercy on our souls.

Militia Immaculatae

According to the Brief of Pope Pius XI dated December 18, 1926, the members of the Militia Immaculatae (M.I.) can obtain a plenary indulgence on the following days:
* the day of their enrollment in the M.I. (May 17, 2014),
* the anniversary of the founding of the M.I. (October 16),
* the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8),
* the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25),
* the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11),
* the anniversary of the first appearance of Our Lady of Fatima (May 13),
* the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4), and
* the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (November 27).

Besides the usual conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence (sacramental Confession within eight days, prayer for the intentions of the Popes,  freedom from attachment to sin), one must renew his promise to adhere to the Statutes of the M.I. and to keep them faithfully.

Act of Consecration to the Immaculata
O Immaculata, Queen of heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our Mother who loves us so much and to whom God has entrusted the entire kingdom of mercy!

I, N.N., an unworthy sinner, cast myself down at your feet and implore you with all my heart: deign to accept me utterly and entirely as your possession and your property. Do what you will with me, with all the faculties of my soul and my body, with my whole life, with my death and my eternity.

Dispose of me as it pleases you, so as to fulfill what is said of you: "She will crush the head of the serpent," and also: "Thou alone hast vanquished all heresies throughout the world."

Make me an instrument of your immaculate and merciful hands to serve you, so as to increase as much as possible your honor in so many tepid souls that have fallen away from the Faith and thus to extend the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For upon whatever place you enter, you implore the grace of conversion and sanctification, for all graces come to us from the Sacred Heart of Jesus only through your hands.

Grant me to praise thee, O most Blessed Virgin.

Give me strength against Thine enemies.

Aspiration of the Militia Immaculatae
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for all who do not have recourse to thee, especially for the Freemasons and for those who are commended to they care.

End of Lent Novena

Good Friday next week marks the 25^th anniversary of the death of Abp. Marcel Lefebvre.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
* Born: November 29, 1905
* Ordained: September 21, 1929
* Consecrated: September 18, 1947
* Founded the Society: November 1, 1970
* Died: March 25, 1991

Today begins a novena, for private use, ending on the anniversary of the Archbishop's death, asking:
* The triumph of Holy Mother the Church
* The preservation and flourishing of the Society of St. Pius X
* The holiness of his priestly sons and religious

Novena
O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, who deigned to elevate Thy faithful servant Marcel Lefebvre to the episcopal dignity and to grant him the grace of being a fearless defender of the Holy Mass, of the Catholic Priesthood, of Thy Holy Church, and of the Holy See, of being a courageous apostle of Thy Kingdom on earth, of being a devoted servant of Thy holy Mother, and of being a shining example of charity, of humility and of all virtues; bestow upon us now, by his merits, the graces we beseech of Thee, so that, assured of his powerful intercession to Thee, we may one day see him elevated to the glory of the altar. Amen.

Prayer to the Trinity

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880–1906) was a young nun of the Carmelite monastery in Dijon, France. Her life was simple, one of prayer and sacrifice. A quotation from her sums up her mission. "I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself."

Prayer to the Trinity
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery! Pacify my soul! Make it your heaven, your beloved home and place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for you a spouse of your heart! I would anoint you with glory, I would love you – even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask you to adorn me with yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm me, substitute yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer, and Savior.

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to you, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from you; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on you and abide under your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave your radiance.

O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, descend into my soul and make all in me as an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to him a super-added humanity wherein he renews his mystery; and you O Father, bestow yourself and bend down to your little creature, seeing in her only your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased.

O my `Three’, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in whom I lose myself, I give myself to you as a prey to be consumed; enclose yourself in me that I may be absorbed in you so as to contemplate in your light the abyss of your greatness!

From http://stas.org/en/node/1283

Prayer to St. Joseph for the Spirit of Work

Feast of St. Joseph

Pope St. Pius X composed this prayer to St. Joseph, patron of working people, that expresses concisely the Christian attitude toward labor. It summarizes also for us the lessons of the Holy Family's work at Nazareth.

Glorious St. Joseph, model of all who devote their lives to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance in order thereby to atone for my many sins; to work conscientiously, setting devotion to duty in preference to my own whims; to work with thankfulness and joy, deeming it an honor to employ and to develop by my labor the gifts I have received from God; to work with order, peace, moderation, and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties; to work above all with a pure intention and with detachment from self, having always before my eyes the hour of death and the accounting which I must then render of time ill spent, of talents wasted, of good omitted, and of vain complacency in success, which is so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all through Mary, all in imitation of you, O Patriarch Joseph! This shall be my motto in life and in death, Amen.

St. Joseph

Angelus Domini

The Angelus is a short practice of devotion in honor of the Incarnation repeated three times each day, morning, noon, and evening.

When done properly, it sounds like this.

Keep Holy the Sabbath

One keeps holy the Sabbath by refraining from servile work and by adoring God in worship that pleases Him and is worthy of Him. Ages ago the Church in Her Divine Wisdom decided that the best way to accomplish the latter is to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

The new Mass deprives God of a good owed to Him in justice — specifically, by failing to offer a sacrificial form of worship worthy of His dignity and majesty. Instead of giving back to God something He desires, it substitutes a shabby and banal imitation. Even when the new Mass is valid, it lacks the integrity, the decorum, the fidelity that God demands and deserves in a sacrifice.

Plenty of people in the modern Church are doing the best they can, and they do not comprehend or fully realize that their own clerical leaders have taken them astray by providing a simulacrum. God knows how to make allowances for their good will exercised in ignorance.

For those of us who do realize that the modern Church is trafficking in a counterfeit sacrifice, however, we avoid participating in or favoring a form of worship that deprives God of what is His due. Thus, we do not attend the new Mass, which does not honor God the way he deserves, which fails to state clearly the Catholic Faith whole and entire, and which tends to erode and diminish the Catholic Faith of those who do attend.

We do God more honor on a Sunday by refusing to attend an unworthy form of worship than by attending. He gave us His very best, and we owe the same in return; we will not short-change Him.

Rather than view this as a shocking refusal to fulfill the Sunday obligation, take it as an indication of how shocking an affront the new Mass is to the Almighty. Refrain from servile work; pray the Propers of the day and a full Rosary; spend extra time in spiritual reading; but avoid the new Mass at all costs.

Credo

On Sundays the priest sings the Creed at Mass. This profession of Faith was drawn up in the councils of Nicea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD) as a response to heresies that denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.

The Credo
I believe in One God (Hebrews 11:6)
The Father (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Almighty (Apocalypse 1:8)
Maker of Heaven and earth (Exodus 20:11)
And of all things visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16)
And in One Lord (Acts 10:36)
The only Begotten Son of God (John 1:14)
Born of the Father before all ages (1 John 4:9)
God of God, Light of Light (John 1:4)
True God of true God (John 5:18)
Begotten, not made (John 8:58)
Consubstantial with the Father (John 10:30)
By Whom all things were made (John 1:3)
Who for us men and for our salvation (Matthew 1:21)
Came down from Heaven (John 3:31)
And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35)
Of the Virgin Mary (Luke 2:6-7)
And was made man (John 1:4)
He was crucified also for us (Mark 15:25)
Suffered under Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:26)
And was buried (Matthew 27:60)
The third day He rose again (Matthew 28:6)
According to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 5:4)
And ascended into Heaven (Luke 24:51)
Sitteth at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19)
And He shall come again with glory (Matthew 25:31)
To judge both the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1)
Of whose Kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:33)
And I believe in the Holy Ghost (John 14:26)
Giver of Life (Romans 8:2)
Who Proceedeth from the Father (John 15:26)
And the Son (Romans 8:9)
Who, together with the father and the Son, is adored and glorified (Apocalypse 4:8)
Who spoke by the prophets (2 Peter 1:21)
And in One (John 10:16)
Holy (Ephesians 5:26)
Catholic (Romans 10:18)
Apostolic Church (Ephesians 2:20)
I confess one Baptism (Ephesians 4:5)
For the remission of sins (Acts 2:38)
And I look for the Resurrection of the dead (Romans 6:5)
And the Life of the world to come (Matthew 25:34)

Amen.

Prayer From the Heart

Lord,

Make my dissipated heart into a recollected one,

My unmortified heart into a mortified one,

My ambitious heart into a humble one,

My faint and timid heart into a brave and courageous one,

My irritable and peevish heart into a mild and patient one,

My sinful heart into a holy one.

- After Fr. Michael Müeller, C.SS.R.

Old English Prayer

Old English Prayer

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I give my soul to Christ to keep.
Four corners to my bed;
Four angels there aspread:
Two to foot, and two to head,
And four to carry me when I'm dead.
I go by sea; I go by land:
The Lord made me with His right hand.
If any danger come to me,
Sweet Jesus Christ deliver me!
He's the branch and I'm the flower:
Pray God send me a happy hour.
And if I die before I wake,
I pray that Christ my soul will take. Amen.

Even a Child Can Figure It Out

Source

U.S. Marine Scott Woods' widow Sara and their son Landon have been given a mortgage-free house in Texas as part of Operation Finally Home's worthy project to build houses for wounded and disabled veterans or their widowed families.

Landon is just five years old; he understands that his father will not be coming home. His mother has taught him that he can still speak to his father, however.

"We told him he could talk to daddy in his prayers," Sara said, "and even in the middle of the day, you'll see him walk around the corner and you'll hear him say the 'now I lay me down to sleep prayer,' which Scott taught him. And then he starts talking to daddy."

I'm glad the Woods family figured out that prayers can be directed not only to God, but to souls who are no longer in this world. It is a natural and reasonable -- and thoroughly Catholic -- conclusion.

How to Pray the Rosary

Maundy Thursday

"So that our prayers may be even more efficacious and each one may derive a greater benefit from them, we wish to conclude by recalling that when one recites the Rosary, the most important thing is not the number of Hail Mary’s, but rather the way in which one prays them. The risk of monotony or distraction can be fought effectively by praying the Rosary according to the instructions of Mary herself: while counting off the Rosary beads, it is a matter of meditating on the scenes from the life of Our Lord and of His Holy Mother and the mysteries that they present. The most important thing is this contact with the life of our Savior, which is established when one thinks lovingly about the events announced with each decade, the 'mysteries' of the Rosary. The decades of Hail Mary’s become like background music accompanying and sustaining this powerful, gentle contact with God, with Our Lord and Our Lady."

- H.E. Bishop Bernard Fellay, SSPX, in his letter #78 of Passion Sunday, April, 2011

Advocate with the Advocate

A Catholic fellow I know said a friend of his wife's chided him for praying to Mary. "We are only to pray to Jesus, no one else," she told him.

Which is correct. And when we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for something, we're asking her to pray to Jesus on our behalf. All her efficacy comes through her Son -- who, being the Perfect Son, always listens to His mother and does as she asks Him.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Prayer for a Humble Servant

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Prayer for the Canonization of His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, who deigned to elevate Thy faithful servant Marcel Lefebvre to the episcopal dignity and to grant him the grace of being a fearless defender of the Holy Mass, of the Catholic Priesthood, of Thy Holy Church, and of the Holy See, of being a courageous apostle of Thy Kingdom on earth, of being a devoted servant of Thy holy Mother, and of being a shining example of charity, of humility and of all virtues; bestow upon us now, by his merits, the graces we beseech of Thee, so that, assured of his powerful intercession to Thee, we may one day see him elevated to the glory of the altar. Amen.

After Abp. Marcel Lefebvre, 11/29/05 - 3/25/91