Almighty God, as we believe that your Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day into heaven, grant that we too may live in spirit in that heavenly dwelling. Through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
“MARY, PLEASE CULTIVATE THE FLOWER OF MY HEART” by Don Dolindo Ruololo
The month of Mary is the month of A PROFOUND REFORM OF THE HEART: we must leave ourselves and adorn ourselves with every virtue and every spiritual good.
In the springtime plants are reborn to a new life; they are adorned with flowers full of perfume and attractive. My soul also needs to reflower in order to be full of virtue and peace!
In your Heart, O Mary, I will reflower as a lily because you are purity. In your love my coldness will be transformed into warmth because you are full of the flames of divine charity. In your hands I will find refuge because you are the Mother of mercy!
O Mary, O Mary, cast the glance of your goodness upon me! Even I am a little flower of heaven’s field… Cultivate me and speak to me, O Mary, because by your word I will draw life and love.
MARY: O my daughter [O my son], your mother is always ready to cultivate you provided that you treat me as a mother and not as a stranger. How many times you’ve been afraid of me, even while knowing that I am all loving! How many times have you virtually fled from me, so slack has your devotion been. Come to my heart and let it be a school of virtue for you since God himself has made me great for your good. Follow me faithfully, even if your soul feels arid and without any fervour. Confide your pains to me. Turn toward me because in this month I have so many treasures of grace to dispense and I give them to those who turn to my motherly heart with trust.
THE SOUL: O my good Mama, don’t you see what an ugly flower I am? I’m a withered flower, almost without leaves and without life… Help me! I entrust my soul to you that you might cultivate it and heal it… The bells of your temple are ringing for the feast, Mary, yet I groan with sluggishness. Your throne is rich with flowers, and my heart, which ought to be your throne, is so poor and devoid of everything!
O my Mother, while the plaintive harmony of these bells dissipates in the air, the groan of my poor heart reaches your Heart and moves it to have pity on me! I need grace because I am so miserable:
Maria Mater gratiae, Mater misericordiae tu nos ab hoste protege et hora mortis suscipe. (Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, protect us from the evil one and receive us at the hour of death).
ASPIRATION: O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
LITTLE WORK: Accept with patience and calm the rudeness which comes your way.
5 MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
O eternal Godhead,
how well mercy suits you!
How well it suits you
that your servants should arouse your mercy
against the judgement the world deserves
because of its sins!
Your mercy created us,
and the same mercy redeemed us from eternal death.
Your mercy rules over us
and holds back your justice,
keeping the earth from opening up to swallow us,
keeping the animals from devouring us.
In fact, all things serve us
and the earth gives us its fruits.
All this your mercy does.
Your mercy preserves us
and prolongs our life,
giving us time to return and be reconciled with you.
O compassionate merciful Father,
who keeps the angels from taking revenge
on this humanity which is your enemy?
Your mercy.
In mercy you grant us consolation to coax us to love,
for the human heart is attracted by love.
The same mercy gives and permits sufferings and hardships
so that we may learn to know ourselves
and acquire the little virtue of true humility –
and even to give yourself a reason
to reward those who fight bravely,
suffering with true patience.
In mercy you preserved the scars in your Son’s body
so that he might with these scars
beg for mercy for us before your majesty.
In mercy you have seen fit today to show me,
poor as I am,
how we can in no way pass judgement
on other people’s intentions.
Indeed, by sending people along an endless variety of paths,
you give me an example for myself,
and for this I thank you.
St Catherine of Siena
We praise You, invisible Father, giver of immortality, and source of life and light. You love all human beings, especially the poor. You seek reconciliation with all of them and You draw them to Yourself by sending Your beloved Son to visit them.
Make us really alive by giving us the light to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. Grant us the Holy Spirit and enable us to speak volumes about Your ineffable mysteries. Amen.
St Serapion
On the crucifix and the first three beads (of ordinary Rosary beads) we say:
O Jesus, Divine Redeemer, be merciful to us and to the whole world. Amen.
Strong God, holy God, immortal God, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen.
Grace and mercy, O my Jesus, during present dangers; cover us with Your Precious Blood. Amen.
Eternal Father, grant us mercy through the Blood of Jesus Christ, Your only Son; grant us mercy, we beseech You. Amen, Amen, Amen.
On the large beads we say:
V. Eternal Father, I offer You the Wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ.
R. To heal the wounds of our souls.
On the small beads we say:
V. My Jesus, pardon and mercy.
R. Through the merits of Your Holy Wounds.
AN ACT OF LOVE BEFORE HOLY COMMUNION
O loving Jesus, concealed under the form of bread, thou art my hope, and thou art also my love; for how great, how unconquerable must have been thy love to induce thee, the Son of the Most High, the object of the adoration of Heaven, to descend from thy throne of eternal glory to this miserable earth to dwell among us and become our very own?
It did not satisfy thy love to remain as man among us for a few passing years: thou wouldst always remain with us. Thou wast not satisfied to shed thy Blood once for us in terrible suffering on the cross; thou wouldst have the sublime sacrifice daily offered for us. O love of my Saviour, unfathomable abyss, what must be the perversion and hardness of heart that cannot love thee in return! I love thee, my Jesus; at least I desire to love thee as fervently as thou meritest to be loved.
Inflame my cold heart with thy love and let thy holy fire never be extinguished; let this love be stronger in me than death; nothing henceforth shall separate me from thy love, O Jesus; neither life nor death, neither the world nor the flesh, neither affliction nor distress. In this love will I persevere to my last hour, and be thine, O Jesus, forever.
St Anthony’s Treasury
Not ours to know the reason why,
unanswered is our prayer,
but ours to wait for God’s own time
to life the cross we bear;
not ours to know the reason why
from loved ones we must part,
but ours to live in faith and hope,
though bleeding to the heart;
no ours to know the reason
why this anguish, strife and pain,
but ours to know a crown of thorns
sweet graces for us gain,
a cross, a bleeding heart and crown –
what greater gifts are given?
Be still, my heart, and murmur not;
these are the Keys of Heaven.
From a prayer book
Sing of Christ, proclaim his glory,
sing the resurrection song!
Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story,
to the former days belong.
All around the clouds are breaking,
soon the storms of time shall cease;
in God’s likeness, people, waking,
know the everlasting peace.
O what glory, far exceeding
all that eye has yet perceived!
Holiest hearts for ages pleading
never that full joy conceived.
God has promised, Christ prepares it,
there on high our welcome waits;
ev’ry humble spirit shares it,
Christ has passed th’eternal gates.
Life eternal! Heaven rejoices:
Jesus lives who once was dead:
shout with joy, O deathless voices!
Child of God, lift up your head!
Patriarchs from distant ages,
saints all longing for their heaven,
prophets, psalmists, seers and sages,
all await the glory giv’n.
Life eternal! O what wonders
crowd on faith, what joy unknown,
when, amid earth’s closing thunders,
saints shall stand before the throne!
O to enter that bright portal,
see that glowing firmament,
know, with you, O God immortal,
Jesus Christ whom you have sent!
– William Josiah Irons (1812-83)
What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.
From a reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday
By the expression “He descended into hell”, the APOSTLES’ CREED confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil “who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14) [CCC 636]. In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him [CCC 637].
🎨 After his death on the cross and before his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ grants salvation to the souls of the just who lived during all those centuries prior to His entry into Time by the Harrowing of Hell. Fresco, by Fra Angelico, c. 1430s
QUESTION: “…I do notice people still going around the Stations of the Cross… When did the devotion of doing the Stations of the Cross begin? … Would you recommend it as a practice for Lent?
ANSWER: The answer to your second question is that I would certainly recommend it as a devotional practice for Lent. Lent is a time of prayer and penance in preparation for Easter – for Christ’s death and Resurrection. The Stations of the Cross, prayed at home or in the church, with their focus on the suffering of Christ as he made his way to Calvary is an ideal prayer and practice for Lent.
When did this devotion begin? The devotion to the passion of Christ actually began with the Crucifixion but it developed into its present form through the efforts of Franciscan Friars in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Franciscan preachers and writers began spreading the devotion worldwide, publicising the spiritual richness of the devotion.”
This article was published in “Saint Martin Magazine” issue March 2004. For subscriptions please visit http://www.stmartin.ie (external link).
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