Catholic Cuisine Blogspot - Amy Caroline’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/09/year-of-priest-thanking-your-parish.html

Light and the strength of love - Veni Creator Spiritus

“Those who pray do not waste their time,
although a situation may seem to call only for action,
nor do they seek to change and correct God’s plan.
Rather they aim – following the example of Mary and the saints
– to draw from God the light and the strength of love
that defeats all the darkness and selfishness present in the world.”

-From “Deus caritas est” (God is Love), the first Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI

A crusade of innocent prayer, in order to form a great barrier against the spread of evil and sin...

Our Lady ardently desires to gather youth of all ages under her immaculate mantle. She wants them to come together in the cenacle so that she may give them the strength to flee sin and to live the Gospel of Jesus. In her message, "Only in the Hearts of Little Ones," given on February 2, 1990, she especially asks for "children's cenacles."

Our Lady says:

"Now that you are entering into the last decade of this century, during which the decisive events that will bring you to the triumph of my Immaculate Heart will be completed, I am asking you that cenacles among priests, cenacles among the faithful and especially family cenacles be multiplied even more. I am asking in particular that there be formed everywhere children's cenacles, as a crusade of innocent prayer, in order to form a great barrier against the spread of evil and sin, and allow God and your heavenly Mother to bring about the victory of goodness and of love." (419g, Feb. 8, 1990)

2 Feb.1990 - 27 Dec.1990
http://www.mmp-usa.net/cenacle_child.html

see also+++ historical context
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/nirq050.htm

1991 Gulf War chronology
Day 1: Wednesday, Jan. 16
Desert Storm begins at 7 p.m. EST (3 a.m. Jan. 17 in Iraq) with massive air and missile attacks on targets in Iraq, Kuwait.

Consecration to the Holy Trinity- Mother Marie Adele Garnier - foundress Tyburn Nuns

I adore you, Holy Trinity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
I empty myself before your majesty.
I believe in you, I hope in you, I love you,
my God so good
I thank you for all the graces
which you have lavished on me
and I implore from your mercy
pardon for my sins and my ingratitude.
Adorable Trinity,
one only God in three persons,
anew I give myself wholly to you
through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In union with the intentions
for which the divine Victim offers himself
in sacrifice on the altar,
I renew the offering of myself to you
as a victim of adoration, love and praise,
thanksgiving, atonement and entreaty,
for the Holy Father, the Church
and for the worldwide fulfilment
of the plans of the Heart of Jesus,
so full of love and mercy.

I make a special offering to you,
through the hearts of Jesus and Mary,
of the prayer, work and suffering
of this day,for these intentions
( particularly for ...)
Upheld by your grace, my God,
I will try to glorify you in all things
and I abandon myself with all my heart
to your Holy Will.
AMEN.

+++

my own prayer:

Eternal Father , of majesty unbounded, please grant me ears and heart open to loving obedience through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, your Beloved Son in whom I live, and move and have my being. Come, O Holy Spirit, enkindle the flame of Divine Love in my poor heart. Find a welcome resting place in me,in Mary. Mane Nobiscum Domine! Be pleased, Father, in what your hand has wrought. Be it done as you have willed from the moment of your forming me in my mother's womb.None can oppose your loving will. Yes, Father, to all that you desire. Your will is love and peace. From moment to moment, lead me, strengthen me, help me! I am poor in love and fidelity and have none to help me but you. For nothing is good apart from You . Your will is love and mercy. Amen. So be it to the praise of your glory forever. Deo Gratias. For all you have done, for all you are doing now, and for all that you will do in your merciful love and providence.
Amen.

Prayer of Petition through the intercession of John Paul the Great

The Argument of Holiness - Archbishop Fulton Sheen

In other parts of the world,
our brothers in Christ are suffering
for their faith.
And here we are at ease,
just undergoing a slight test
and dividing our loyalty
between Christ and the world.
We must realize in minds and hearts
that this is a new age,
that we will have to be a creative minority,
and that the only argument that is left
to convince others is holiness.
The world has heard every other argument,
and it is ready to reject them all,
all except one: holiness

+++
From: Through the Year with Fulton Sheen
p. 32 available from Ignatious Press

Does the Crucifix mean anything to us? p.32 Through the Year with Fulton Sheen

Does the Crucifix mean anything to us?
The silver crucifix that I wear, I wear in reparation.
I was in a Jewish jewelry store one day in New York,
where I had known the jeweler for twenty or twenty-five years.
He said to me, "I have some silver crucifixes for you."
And he gave me a bag of silver crucifixes,
over a hundred of them.
I said,"Where did you get them?"
"Oh," he said, "from sisters; They brought them in.
They told me, 'We're not going to wear the crucifix anymore;
it divides us from the world.
How much will you give us for the silver?'"
The jeweler said, "I weighed them out thirty pieces of silver."
Then he said, "What's wrong with your church?
I thought that meant something to you."
So I told him what was wrong.
Three months later I received him into the church.
-- Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Through the Year with Fulton Sheen p.32
available from Ignatius Press

Fr. John A. Hardon,S.J. - The strategy of the devil in demonic temptations

The Strategy of the Devil in Demonic Temptations
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil.
As St. John tells us, we are tempted from three sources: by the world, the flesh, and the devil The world is the attractive sinful conduct of other people. The flesh is our concupiscence, the natural inclination that we now have after the fall of the human race, to follow what appeals to us even though it is displeasing to God. The devil is, in some ways, the most powerful enemy we have in the spiritual life.
If there is one thing we learn from the masters of the spiritual life it is to expect to be tempted by the evil spirit. It was the evil spirit who tempted Eve and brought on the fall of the human race. As we reflect on temptations by the devil in our own lives, we must keep in mind who the devil is. He is the evil spirit. Spirit because he is not sensibly perceptible. We cannot hear him with our bodily ears or see him with our bodily eyes. He is an evil spirit whose number is legion and who has been phenomenally successful in seducing untold numbers from their allegiance to God.
St. Ignatius has a key meditation in the Spiritual Exercises on what he calls the Two Standards. The Two Standards correspond to the two leaders in the world who are drawing people to follow them. One leader is Jesus Christ, who inspires believing Christians to dedicate themselves to the extension of His kingdom throughout the world. The other leader is Satan, who is trying to seduce people to follow him for the extension of his demonic kingdom, which, in the words of St Augustine, is the City of Man, which is in constant conflict with the kingdom of Christ. The devil knows that you get nowhere alone, you inspire others to follow you. Then you train your followers and disciples and they will carry on your work. The devil trains his followers to seduce not just people or cities, but whole nations.
The Character of the Devil
If we wish to resist the temptations of the evil spirit, we must know something about their demonic character. He is a liar by nature. He lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden, telling her that God forbade her and Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit because God was afraid that they, Adam and Eve, would come to know what God knows, the meaning of good and evil.
The devil lied to Judas who betrayed his Master because the devil made Judas think that he could remain a follower of Christ while remaining a friend of Christ’s enemies. The Church teaches that what Judas wanted was money. The saints said that this is why Judas committed suicide. He was deceived. He had gotten his money, but his betrayal and his gain of money brought on the passion of his master, Jesus Christ.
The devil deceived Pilate into condemning Christ to death, even though Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. Over the centuries this had been the basic tactic of the evil spirit, deceit. Pilate feared losing the friendship of Caesar. Yet, after condemning Jesus, Pilate soon lost his position and died a humiliating cowardly death.
We are talking about who the devil is. The devil became who he is because he envied the majesty of God. Ever since his own fall because of envy, this has been the fundamental means that the devil uses to seduce people from their loyalty to God. It was the devil who inspired Cain to murder his brother Abel out of envy. It was the devil who inspired Saul to want to murder David out of envy. It was the devil who inspired the Scribes and Pharisees to condemn Christ to an ignominious death. Why? Because they envied Christ’s popularity among the people. Thousands followed Jesus, spending whole days without eating in order to listen to Jesus. And so the Scribes and Pharisees tried the most atrocious way of getting people to listen to them. It was the devil, that the Apostle tells us, who seduced Judas to betray his Master out of envy.
Christ tells us, “The devil is a murderer from the beginning.” Unless our first parents had been seduced by the devil, bodily death would never have entered the human race. But the devil is a murderer in the deepest sense. His ambition is to murder human souls. Remember there is a first death, the death of the human body. There is a second death, the death of the soul. The devil’s ambition is to murder human souls by destroying God’s grace in their spiritual lives. Being in hell himself, the devil wants nothing more than to bring human beings to join him in his own eternal damnation.
The devil is not one person. The devil is an organized battalion of malice. Some of the Fathers of the Church speak of two mystical bodies in the world. There is a mystical body of Christ, which is the Church He founded that we call the Church Militant. There is also a mystical body of satan, founded by lucifer, which is literally hell-bent on conquering the mystical body of Christ. This is the main reason why the Church on earth is called the Church Militant. It is most important to recognize the organized character of the legions of the evil spirit. Let us be sure that we recognize the Church Militant as more than just an adjective. As the saints tell us, the followers of Christ have one powerful weapon in battling the devil. That weapon is the Cross. We shall conquer the evil spirit on one condition. That we love the Cross, venerate the Cross, use the Cross to defeat the devil and his followers.
One more description of the devil. The devil uses civil authority, call it the State to war against the followers of Christ. It is surely not coincidental that Pontius Pilate, the civil governor of Palestine, condemned Jesus to a shameful death on the Cross. Over the centuries, the enemies of Christ have used the power of the State to undermine the moral teachings of the Savior. The legalized murder, under State authority, in most of the countries of the world, is surely the work of the devil. He uses State power. As I heard from a man just recently, “I have spent the last four years of my life in prison for praying the rosary before abortuaries.” As I said before, the State is the organized battalion which is being used by the devil to destroy the mystical body of Christ.
Tactics of the Devil
To live the spiritual life according to the teachings of our lord, we must brace ourselves to expect opposition from the evil spirit. This opposition ranges across the whole spectrum of human nature. The devil is a professional accommodator. He adjusts himself to different people in different ways. I cannot recommend a more informative source of knowledge about the devil’s tactics than the two sets of rules for discernment of spirits of St. Ignatius of Loyola. They are the fruit of Ignatius’ own lifetime struggle with evil spirits, in his own personal life and the lives of his followers in the Society of Jesus.
The single most important thing to know about demonic strategy is how differently the devil tempts what I may call, good and bad people.
Good people would be those who are sincerely trying to do God’s will. They are weak and they fail. They make mistakes and they do, at times, offend God. But their underlying philosophy of life is to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
Bad people, on the other hand, are those who are living in sin. They may profess to be Christian believers or they may be in positions of great importance and influence in the church and society. But their philosophy is basically to follow their inclinations, no matter how sinful these may be, in a word, they are living in sin.
What is the technology of the devil who is tempting these two classes of people? For those who are seriously trying to remain faithful to God, the devil is unbelievably clever in trying to induce them to worry, to be anxious, to be discouraged and despondent, and if possible, even to drive them to despair. The devil’s intentions are obvious. He knows such people too well not to know that he would not succeed by tempting them to obvious sins. What he wants to do, however, is to deceive such persons into thinking that a faithful Christian life is burdensome or boring or oppressively difficult. The devil wants to deceive such persons into thinking that such a Christian life is oppressive, it is too much.
How does the devil act in tempting people who are already steeped in sin? His policy is to do the very opposite of how he acts with those who are trying to remain faithful to God. If these sinners have a little faith to begin with, he will deceive them into thinking there really is no such thing as sin. As so many modern psychologists and psychiatrists tell their clients and these are the exact words of a professional psychiatrist published in a book, “Don’t be a slave of your conscience. Satisfy your desires. You are in charge of your own life. You determine what is good and you choose what you want.” If these sinners still have some faith in God, the devil will tell them not to worry. God is merciful. In all these cases, the demonic strategy is clear. Keep sinners in their sinful state of mind, and keep them from ever repenting of their sinful state of soul.
There is one more device of the father of lies that is so important, it is an underlying theme of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical The Splendor of the Truth. This is more than a device or even just a tactic. It is a fundamental premise of demonic strategy. As the Holy father explains, millions of people in the modern world have been deceived into disclaiming that there is such a thing as an inherently or intrinsically evil action. Nothing that a man does is ever evil by itself. It is only the circumstances, or the motives or the situation in which people do things which determine the morality of their conduct. Once people accept this principle, there is nothing which two thousand years of Christianity have taught, are still sins. Why not? Because there are now so many, how well I know, professedly Christian moralists in professedly Catholic universities and seminaries, who teach that abortion, or contraception, or euthanasia, or adultery are not sinful.
Clearly only the devil could have invented such malevolent theories. Yet they have penetrated academic circles that are shaking some parts of the Christian world to its foundation.
The Devil as Seducer
We should say something more about the tactics of the devil, here as seducer of human minds and wills.
The evil spirit seduces the mind by making error appealing. What we now call advertising goes back to the earliest days of recorded history. The ancient Romans publicized what they wanted the people to get with resources they did not have. Today’s world in the most absolute sense of the word is the age of advertising. The average cost of advertising in America today is over one hundred and fifty billion dollars every year. Not incidentally this amount of money is enough to support more than one nation, especially in Africa and Asia.
The evil spirit capitalizes on this phenomenon and literally seduces millions. He makes them think they need what they want, just because they want it.
Take the tragic instability of family life in America. The annual average is now over one divorce for every two marriages. In the future, it will be even worse as the children of broken homes reach marriageable, and -we have to coin a word- divorceable, age. Yet always divorce and remarriage seem to be the easy way out. It looks like a quick solution to a deep problem. And the press, radio and television sustain the falsehood by telling married people of the benefits of divorce. The laws of our country abet the conspiracy by making it next to impossible to save a marriage if one of the partners wants to be released, as they say, from the tyranny of a husband or wife.
The evil spirit tries to seduce not only the human mind but also the human will. He entices our wills by releasing our passions. He wants to arouse the passions of the flesh and, what is less obvious, the passions of the soul. Why should he want to do this? What connection is there between passion and sin? The connection is that of cause and effect. Sin always leaves its mark on the sinner. It is like throwing a bottle of nitric acid into a person’s face and burning out his eyes. Every sin we commit weakens our powers of reason and intelligent perception. The more serious the sin and the more often committed, the greater is this induced darkening of man’s most precious possession, which makes him most like God, his ability to think. Sinners do not think, they emote, and then write learned volumes defending their irrationality.
How otherwise explain the crimes of a Stalin or a Hitler, who sent millions to their death in the cold deserts of Siberia and the gas chambers and hot ovens of Germany? How otherwise explain the mania of abortion?
No human beings, unless inspired by the devil, could be so cruel as to murder millions of innocent children. Only demonic hatred or lust for power and pleasure could explain what we are now witnessing in one once civilized country after another.
How to Deal with Demonic Temptations
The apostle St. Peter tells us how to cope with the evil spirit. Peter knew because already in his lifetime the devil had seduced many who had been followers of Christ. The quotation is a bit lengthy but is worth giving in full.
All of you practice humility towards one another. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in the time of visitation. Cast all your anxieties upon Him, because He cares for you. Be sober, be watchful! For your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking someone to devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same suffering befalls your brethren all over the world (I Peter 5:5-8).
What, then, is the first and indispensable condition for resisting the evil spirit? It is a deep, sincere humility of heart.
As St. Peter tells us, we are not to be afraid of the evil spirit. Why not? Because we have the grace of God, one of whose main purposes is to resist the machinations of the devil. At the same time we must be watchful. This means we must expect to be tempted by the father of lies. We must have a clear mind in order to distinguish inspirations from the good spirit and instigations of the evil spirit.
We must be sober, which is a strange word in our drink-preoccupied society. Sobriety, in the language of scripture, means temperance in the use of the creatures in our lives. God wants us to enjoy some of the things that He gives us. But, He also wants us to endure, and endure many creatures; He wants us to remove some creatures; and He wants us to sacrifice many things that are naturally pleasing. All of this is locked up in that strange word, be sober.
The devil knows us very well. He cannot read our secret thoughts but he can conclude to our inner spirit by our external behavior, and even, as exorcists tell me, the emotional expressions on our face. When St. Peter tells us not to be afraid of the evil spirit he means more than meets the eye. He means that we should not even show by our emotions that we are afraid of the devil. Our emotional expressions, in what we say, how we react, how we allow our feelings to manifest themselves in our bodies – all of these are dangerous in dealing with the devil. We must not only be at peace inside, but manifest a peaceful attitude in our external behavior. The devil is especially influential in mastering those who are afraid of him.
The courageous behavior of Christ in His temptation by the devil is a pattern of how we should deal with the evil spirit.
One strong recommendation, never engage the devil in conversation. I mean never. If you must tell the devil to depart; if you want the devil to go, tell him, but never engage him in what could even be interpreted as a friendly conversation. I have had enough experience of people foolish enough to engage in conversation with the devil who have suffered disastrous consequences as a result.
One more recommendation based on St. Peter’s injunction. Be strong in your faith. This is not a pious cliché. It means that we exercise our faith, courageously undertaking what we believe God wants us to do and not be afraid of the consequences. The faith we need is the faith of living martyrs in our day. We are to be witnesses of the power of Christ as a divine exorcist and never allow ourselves to doubt that God’s grace in our lives is more powerful than all the demons of hell.
Pray daily to St. Michael the Archangel. He was the first leader of those who led the fallen spirits into their eternal damnation. St. Michael is our chief commander in dealing with the strategy of the master of evil and the prince of this world. Christ assured us He has overcome the world, which means that we have received from Christ to do the same in our demonically plagued society at the close of the twentieth century.
Mary, Queen of martyrs, obtain for us from your Son the wisdom and the power of successfully resisting the machinations of the devil in our lives. Your divine Son told us He has overcome the world and the prince of this world by His life and death on the Cross. Obtain for us the light we need to recognize the instigation of the evil one and the strength to witness to our faith in Christ, the Conqueror of evil until we enter the company of the angels who won their battle against the spirits of evil at the beginning of time. Amen.
+++
Copyright © 1996 Inter Mirifica
www.therealpresence.org/archives/Angelology/Angelology_013.htm

therealpresence.org

Dedication of Christ the King in Sarasota, FL

“Ego vos semper custodiam - I will always protect you,”

Sat 18 April 2009 to me

(Our Lord’s words to St. Clare when Assisi was being attacked by the Saracens.)

St. Clare twice obtained by her prayers the miraculous deliverance of her convent as well as of Assisi from marauding bands of Saracens. +++

Soul in need of mercy,whoever and wherever you may be,know that all the riches of the Divine Mercy are, for you, contained and offered in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Go before the tabernacle,or seek out the monstrance displaying the Body of Christ,--a feast for your eyes--and there adore the mystery of the Divine Mercy.
Open yourself wide,become all capacity,so as to receive within yourself the mighty torrent of Mercy destined for you and, through you, for those whose sorrows and weaknesses you have chosen or have been given to bear.
Adore the Blood and Water that, even now,gush from the Sacred Sidewith a freshness and a purity that never grows old. Adore the Gift of the Holy Spirit and desire to receive Him anew today as the Soul of your soul,that is, the very Life of your life.
The Fountainhead of Divine Mercy is hidden in the Sacrament of the Altar."He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord give you the bread of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more,but your eyes shall see your Teacher." (Isaiah 30:19-20)
Close to the Eucharistic Fountainhead,you will find Mary, the Mater Misericordiae.She never tires of communicating to souls the abundance of Divine Mercy.So close is she to the Source,that it is as if she and the Source were one:all that flows out of the Source passes through her,and it is within her power to direct the flow of Divine Mercy toward whomsoever she pleases. Her Son so trusts her maternal Heart that He has has entrusted all to her, allowing her freely to dispense His Mercy to souls.
Soul devoted to the Divine Mercy, adore Him Who is present as Mercy in the Sacrament of the Altar.Divine Mercy enters the world through the Most Holy Sacrament, for therein in is the Heart of Jesus, the wellspring of His Mercy,and His pierced Side, the mouth of Divine Mercy,the opening out of which Divine Mercy enters the universe and streams into souls to purify, sanctify, and glorify them.
Soul surfeited with miseries, if you would experience the Divine Mercy,draw near to the Eucharistic Presence of the Pierced One; remain in the light of His Eucharistic Face; hold yourself still and full of expectation before His Open Side. There, you will never be disappointed in your hope.For with Him is Mercy and copious redemption,and He will forgive you all your sins.Every tabernacle that shelters His adorable Body and Blood makes available to you, and to all,the Fountainhead of the inexhaustible Mercy of God.

+++

Go to my brethren and say to them . . .
By
Father Markon April 18, 2009

"Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'; and she told them that He had said these things to her." (John 20:18
Women Apostles
I am thinking, on this feast of the Divine Mercy, of four women raised up by the Spirit of God in the course of the last century to deliver a message to the Church. Each one prophesied the mystery of the Divine Mercy in her own language, using her own vocabulary, images, and unique feminine sensibility.
Two were French: Thérèse and Yvonne-Aimée; one was Spanish: Josefa Menendez; and one was Polish: Maria Faustina Kowalska. Two were humble laysisters charged with the lowliest tasks in their convents, all the while receiving the secrets of Heaven: Josefa and Faustina. One, Thérèse, was a young Carmelite hidden away in her cloister, and dreaming of doing great deeds for France (like Jeanne d'Arc), for missionaries, and for the salvation of sinners. And one, Yvonne-Aimée, was a heroine of the French resistance during World War II, a spiritual mother to priests, a divinely-inspired risk-taker for love for her Jesus, and a bold and prudent renovator of religious life.

Our Lord to Sister Josefa Menendez (1890-1923)
"I am He Who forgives thee thy sins, Who wipes out thy offences, and Who sustains thy weakness! The greater is thy nothingness, the more My power upholds thee: I will enrich thee with My gifts, and if thou art faithful I will take sanctuary in thy heart and fly to it when sinners repudiate Me. I will rest in thee, and thou shalt have life in Me."
"If thou art an abyss of wretchedness, I am an abyss of sweetness and of mercy. My Heart is thy refuge, come there to seek all thou has need of; even such things aas I require at thy hands."
"Instead of looking at thy nullity, look at the power of My Heart that upholds thee and have no fear. I am thy strength and shall heal thy wounds."
"What canst thou fear from Me? Never question My love for thee, or the clemency of My Heart. Thy misery draws me to thee . . . without Me what art thou? Never forget that I am all the closer to thee, in proportion to thy lowliness."
"Never grieve overmuch at thy falls --cannot I make a saint of thee? I will seek thee out in thy nothingness to unite Myself to thee, only never refuse Me anything."
"The void and misery in thee are as magnets that attract My love to thee. Yield not to discouragement, for my Mercy is honoured in thy infirmity."

Saint Faustina Before the Blessed Sacrament
In her quest for Divine Mercy for herself, for poor sinners, for priests, for the dying, and for the whole world, Saint Faustina knew where to go. She was drawn to the tabernacle: the dwelling and fountainhead of Divine Mercy.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the infinite price of mercy which will compensate for all our debts, and especially those of poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the fountain of living water which springs from infinite mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the fire of purest love which blazes forth from the bosom of the Eternal Father, as from an abyss of infinite mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the medicine for all our infirmities, flowing from infinite mercy, as from a fount, for us and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the union between God and us through His infinite mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom are contained all the sentiments of the most sweet Heart of Jesus toward us, and especially poor sinners.
Saint Faustina's Aspirations to the Most Blessed Sacrament
Surrendering to Mercy
Thérèse was inspired to make her Oblation to Merciful Love on Sunday, June 9, 1895:
"In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!
Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.
In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!
May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love."
To Josefa, Our Lord said, "Believe in My love and in My mercy." Faustina has taught the world to say, "Jesus, I trust in Thee." And Yvonne-Aimée's miraculous little invocation has changed the lives of thousands: "O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy merciful goodness."

No Limitations to Trust in My Mercy
"I feel somehow that the time is at hand when Your Infinite Mercy will come to our aid." Yvonne-Aimée after a Gestapo search during World War II
"Do you know?" Jesus said to me, "that there are souls that don't dare to think of Me as their best Friend and don't realize that My Heart is always waiting to receive them . . . I am pure Love and I find my happiness in knowing them close to Me and giving them My Love in full measure. . . . They should approach Me with humility and respect, but I also want them to think of Me as their Father and feel at ease with Me. Affection and childlike trust are what they need to talk to God and it saddens Me to see them come to Me almost suspiciously, in fear and trembling, when all I want is their love."
"My Mercy is infinite," Jesus said; "all souls can reach My Divine Heart and rise to whatever heights they wish within that Heart. I make no distinction between the innocent and the guilty -- the more they love Me, the dearer they are to Me. No soul will ever find limitations to its trust in My Mercy, for I want that trust to go on growing for ever . . ." Mother Yvonne-Aimée's Diary -- 1922

katabasis to encompass brief or chronic stays in the underworld

O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy merciful goodness.

"The limit imposed on evil is ultimately Divine Mercy." John Paul II

We have depicted Jesus as Child and as King in order to attract souls to Him more easilyand to give them confident trust and hope.We also wanted to recall that it is by His Divine Heart,full of mercy and of love for humanitythat we shall obtain peace in the world. (Mother Yvonne–Aimée)

Trust Him.

Trust Him with your past,

with your present,

and with your future.

And “from His fullness” you will receive — I promise it — even “grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

+++

Oh Jesus, King of kings, God of Goodness, God of Love, God of Mercy, I adore, I love, I thank, I glorify Your Most Holy Will emanating from Your Omnipotence, guided by Your Wisdom, accompanied by Your Goodness and Love.

Everywhere and in every time, be it either in joy or in pain, may Your Most Holy Will, Your Divine Love, be the star that I gaze at, the law that governs me, the air that I breathe, the heartbeat of my heart, the substance or, better, the Life of my life. To such an end, I unite all my prayers and actions to Yours, all my life to Yours, as well as to that of the Virgin Mother, of Saint Joseph and of all the Elect that have been, are now and shall ever be, with all good, past, present and future which is real and possible in Heaven and on earth.

I consecrate and give all myself, what I have, what I am, what pertains to me, what is dear to me, my life, my death, my eternity, all that You have created and will create by Your Supreme Volition, by Your Infinite Love. And I pray You, oh Infinite Wisdom, to inscribe me with indelible characters in Your adorable Heart as the ardent and zealous child of Your Divine Volition, of Your pure Love. I make this donation in the Power of the Father, in the Wisdom of the Son, in the Virtue of the Holy Spirit, in my name, and in the name of all creatures to obtain the advent and the expansion of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, of Your Divine Love upon the earth. For pity’s sake, oh my Lord, grant that from every lip and from every heart there may continually be raised, as from a sacred altar, the prayer that You, Yourself, as the first, addressed to the Father,

“YOUR KINGDOM COME! YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.”
AMEN.

this prayer discovered here: Luisa Piccarreta - Divine Will

+++

sources:halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/2008/03/06/consecration-to-jesus-christ-king-of-the-universe/

vultus.stblogs.org/2006/09/o_jesus_king_of_love_i_put_my.html

+++

Here is a prayer of Russian Elder Isidore of Gethsemane Hermitage.

Where does it hurt?Placing the hand on the forehead, say:Lord, Thou Who art crowned with thorns upon Thy head, to blood and marrow, for the sake of my sins;
Lowering the hand to the right foot, say:Jesus, Whose right foot was pierced with an iron nail for the sake of my sins;
Placing the hand on the left foot, say:Christ, Whose left foot was pierced with an iron nail for the sake of my sins;
Raising the hand to the right shoulder, say:Son, Whose right hand was pierced with an iron nail for the sake of my sins;
Transferring the hand to the left shoulder, say:Of God, Whose left hand pierced for the sake of my sins; and Whose side was punctured by a spear; from Whose side flowed blood and water for the redemption and salvation of our souls;

Through the Mother of God, grant me understanding.

Turning one’s face towards the icon of the Mother of God, say:

And through Thee Thyself, through Thy soul the weapon pierced, so that from many hearts will be revealed a spring of the repentant, thankful and heartfelt tears of all mankind.
*The initial words from each line of this prayer comprise the first phrase of the ancient Jesus Prayer.
-From Salt of the Earth by St. Paul Florensky

josephpatterson.wordpress.com/feed/

+++

This feast is important because it stands as a reminder to us of the totality of the atonement, of the complete sufficiency of God's mercy to accomplish reconciliation between himself and mankind through the passion, death, and resurrection of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Where once sin created a barrier between man and God, Jesus Christ -- true God and true man -- removes that barrier through is atonement. Through Christ, all human beings, even the more sinful and most wicked, have the opportunity to enter into a relationship with God, to turn from our sins, and to embrace the Good News of salvation through Christ's sacrfice. This feast, on the Sunday after Easter, reminds us in a concrete and tangible way of what Christ wrought upon the cross: our redemption, our reconciliation, our restoration.

www.markinspokane.blogspot.com/

+++