~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January–Month Dedicated to The Holy Name of Jesus
In the book entitled The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1758), St. Alphonsus Maria De Ligouri writes:
This great name of Jesus was not given by man, but by God himself ; ? The name of Jesus,? says St. Bernard, was first preordained by God. It was a new name: A new Name, which the month of the Lord shall name. A new name, which God alone could give to him whom he destined for the Saviour of the world. A new and an eternal name; because, as our salvation was decreed from all eternity, so from all eternity was this name given to the Redeemer. Nevertheless this name was only bestowed on Jesus Christ in this world on the day of his circumcision: And after eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus (Isa.Ixii..2.) The Eternal Father wished at that time to reward the humility of his Son by giving him so honorable a name. Yes, while Jesus humbles himself, submitting in his circumcision to be branded with the mark of a sinner, it is just that his Father should honor him by giving him a name that exceeds the dignity and sublimity of any other name: God hath given Him a Name which is above all names And He commands that this name should be adored by the angels, by men, and by devils: That in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. ii. 10.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer In Honor of the Holy Name of Jesus
O God, Who, didst make Thy only-begotten Son the Saviour of the human race, and didst command Him to be called Jesus, grant propitiously that Him Whose holy Name we venerate on earth, we may behold in the glorious vision of heaven. Who with Thee liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen.
(Taken from “Blessed Be God” by Rev. Callan and Rev. McHugh)
February–Month Dedicated to The Holy Family
In The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1945), Dom Gaspar Lefebvre O. S. B. includes the following context for the Feast of the Holy Family:
“Is it not fitting,” says Leo XIII, “to celebrate the royal birth of the Son of the supreme Father, of the house of David, and the glorious names of that ancient line? Yet it is more consoling for us to call to memory the little house at Nazareth and the humble life lived there; thus celebrating the hidden life of our Lord. For there the divine Child received his training in Joseph’s humble trade; there hidden and sheltered, He grew up and showed Himself ready to share the toil of a carpenter’s life. … Close to the divine Child is His tender Mother; close to Joseph stands his devoted wife, happy to relieve their toil and suffering by her loving care. … In this lowly dwelling at Nazareth, by practicing the domestic virtues of charity, obedience, mutual help and regard, Jesus, Mary and Joseph hallowed family life. There too they constantly found joy and peace in recollection and prayer in common. May the great Christian family practice here on earth the virtues of the Holy Family, so meriting a life in the their blessed company in Heaven.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer In Honor of the Holy Family
Grant us, O Lord Jesus, faithfully to imitate the examples of Thy Holy Family, so that in the hour of our death, in the company of Thy glorious Virgin Mother and St. Joseph, we may deserve to be received by Thee into eternal tabernacles.
(Taken from “Blessed Be God” by Rev. Callan and Rev. McHugh)
March–Month Dedicated to St. Joseph
In The New Roman Missal (1945), Rev. F. X. Lasance. includes the following account for the Feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Joseph, says the Holy Scripture, was a just man; he was innocent and pure; he was gentle and tender; he was prudent and a lover of silence; above all, he was faithful and obedient to divine calls. Devotion to St. Joseph has developed amongst Christian people in so marvelous a manner, following such wonderful laws, that it is impossible not to recognize therein the working of Divine Providence. In the early Church the festivals were such as referred to the mystery of the salvation of the world. The golden period of devotion to Mary began with the Council of Ephesus. Second only to Mary comes Joseph who although not the Father of Jesus, had a father’s authority over Him. He was invested with this authority by the Eternal Father. The commands of God to the Holy Family were delivered by an angel to Joseph. Pius IX declared Joseph “Patron of the Universal Church”
Prayer To St. Joseph
O Joseph, virgin father of Jesus, most pure spouse of the Virgin Mary, pray for us daily to the Son of God, that, armed with the weapons of His grace, we may fight as we ought in life, and be crowned by Him in death.
(Taken from “Blessed Be God” by Rev. Callan and Rev. McHugh)
April–Month Dedicated to The Holy Ghost
The St. Andrew Daily Missal (1945), includes the following doctrinal note for the Feast of Pentecost:
…when He filled the apostles with light and strength on the Day of Pentecost, did the Spirit of holiness inaugurate the dominion which He was going to exercise over souls. It was “with the Holy Ghost that the Church was baptized in the Cenacle”, and it was His life-giving breath that came to give life to the mystical Body of Christ, which He had organized after His resurrection. So it was that our Lord breathed on His apostles, and said to them: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost…Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them”.
Veni, Creator Spiritus
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest,And in our hearts, take up Thy rest;Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid,To fill the hearts, which Thou has made.~~~O Comforter, to Thee we cry;Thou heavenly Gift of God most high;Thou Fount of life, and Fire of love,And sweet Anointing from above.~~~Drive far away our deadly foe,And peace for evermore bestow;If Thou be our preventing Guide,No evil our steps betide.~~~Praise we the Father and the Son,And Holy Spirit, with Them in One;And may the Son on us bestowThe gifts that from the Spirit flow
May–Month Dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary
In Our Lady Book (1944), Rev. F. X. Lasance provides the following perspective on devotion to Our Lady:
We are not able to honor our blessed Lady adequately, since, through her, Jesus has come to us. Oh, how great, how sublime was Mary’s vocation! God predestined her before all ages to be the Mother of the Saviour of the world. And having called her to fill this most glorious office, He would not have her be a mere channel of grace, but an instrument cooperating, both by her excellent qualities and by her own free will, in the great work of our redemption.
For thousands of years, the world had been expecting the promised Messias. The fulness of time has now come. The eternal Father sends a heavenly messenger to Mary, to treat with her of the mystery of the Incarnation. She pronounces the word Fiat! Be it done! And the heavens open; the earth possesses a Saviour; Mary has become the Mother of God.Years pass by. The time has arrived when the great sacrifice is to be consummated. We find Mary at the foot of the cross. With the dying breath of Jesus she receives the Church as an inheritance. Mary becomes our Mother.
Thus Mary is, by her intercession, the Mother of all Christians, the Mother of all men. Her overflowing charity is an appropriate instrument for the operations of grace. Who is better than Mary to plead in our behalf? She can confidently speak to the heart of her divine Son, where her wishes, her sentiments, find an echo. She fears no refusal. The love of the Son makes Him lend a favorable ear to the request of his Mother.
Prayer for the Month of May
Holy Mary, Mother of God! Glorious Queen of heaven and earth! Powerful protectress of those who love thee, and unfailing advocate of all who invoke thee! Look down, we beseech thee, from thy throne of glory, on thy devoted children: accept our solemn resolution to venerate thee especially in the month of May, and our ardent desire, that by our fervent love we may worthily honor thee, who, next to God, art deserving of all honor. Receive us, O Mother of mercy, among thy best beloved children; extend to us thy maternal tenderness and solicitude; obtain for us a place in the Heart of Jesus and a special share in the gifts of His grace. Oh, deign, we beseech thee, to recognize our claims on thy protection, to watch over the spiritual and temporal interests of ourselves and of all who are dear to us; to infuse into our souls the spirit of Christ and to teach us thyself to become meek, humble, charitable, patient and submissive to the will of God. May our hearts burn with the love of thy divine Son, and of thee, His blessed Mother, not for a month alone, but for time and eternity; may we thirst and labor for the promotion of His glory and for thy greater veneration. Receive us, O Mary, thou refuge of sinners; grant us a mother’s blessing and a mother’s care, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
(Taken from “Our Lady Book” by Rev. F. X. Lasance)
June–Month Dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus
In The Liturgical Year (1949), Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B. discusses the attributes of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, based on the revelation to St. Gertrude:
The divine Heart is shown to [St. Gertrude] as an exquisitely beautiful treasure, which holds all riches within it. It is a plenteous spring, whose stream bears refreshment to the souls in purgatory, strength and every other grace to them that are still struggling on this earth, and delights which inebriate the blessed in the heavenly Jerusalem. It is a golden thurible, whence there ascend as many different sorts of fragrant incense as there are different races of men, for all of whom our Redeemer died upon the cross. It is an altar, upon which the faithful lay their offerings, the elect their homage, the angels their worship, and the eternal High Priest offers HImself as a sacrifice. It is a lamp suspended between heaven and earth. It is a chalice out of which the saints drink. It was in this Heart that was formed and composed the Lord’s Prayer ~ the Pater noster; that prayer was the fruit of of Jesus’ Heart. By that same sacred Heart are supplied all the negligences and deficiencies which are found in the honour we pay to God, and His blessed Mother and the saints.
The Heart of Jesus makes itself as our servant, and our bond, in fulfillment of all the obligations incumbent on us; in it alone do our actions derive that perfection, that worth, which makes them acceptable in the eyes of the divine Majesty; and every grace, which flows from heaven to earth, passes through that same Heart.
When our life is at its close, that Heart is the peaceful abode, the holy sanctuary, ready to receive our souls as soon as they have departed from this world; and having received them, it keeps them in itself for all eternity, and beatifies them with every delight!
Prayer of St. Gertrude to the Sacred Heart
Sanctity of the Heart of Jesus, consecrate my heart; providence of the Heart of Jesus, watch over my heart; unchangeableness of the Heart of Jesus, strengthen my heart; purity of the Heart of Jesus, purify my heart; obedience of the Heart of Jesus, subjugate my heart; amiability of the Heart of Jesus, make Thyself known to my heart; divine attractions of the Heart of Jesus, captivate my heart; riches of the Heart of Jesus, do ye suffice for my heart; floods of grace and blessing that flow from the Heart of Jesus, inundate my heart. O Heart of Jesus! be Thou my joy, my peace, my repose in this world and in the next. O Heart of Jesus! adored in heaven, invoked on earth, feared in hell, reign over all hearts, reign throughout all ages, reign forever in celestial glory. Amen.
(Taken from “Blessed Be God” by Rev. Callan and Rev. McHugh)
July–Month Dedicated to The Precious Blood
In The Daily Missal Of The Mystical Body (Maryknoll), it states:
This feast was instituted only in 1849, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood. The special beauty of this feast is its centering of our attention directly on the Blood of Christ, a short cut to the heart of revelation. In these days we need to think of the Passion of Christ; we do not know how God is going to test us. Devotion to the Precious Blood is a fundamental, sane approach to God. It is hard and painful; it will help us to steel our own hearts against weakness.
Prayer to the Precious Blood
@2015 skidders_uk all rights reserved
O Precious Blood of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ardently desire to consecrate myself and all the days of my life to Your love and worship. I place myself and my loved ones in a special manner under Your powerful protection, begging that Your benediction may ever rest upon us. O Most Precious Blood, be our light in darkness, our strength in temptation, our consolation in sorrow, our passport to heaven, and the eternal object of our praise and love. Amen.
(Monastery of The Precious Blood, Manchester, NH)
In The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (Lohman,1945), it states:
The liturgical worship of “the most pure Heart of Mary” was suggested by the Fathers who commented the Canticle of Canticles; it was first joined to that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the XVIIth century, by St. John Eudes. On December 8th 1942, during the terrible world-war, Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole mankind to the “Immaculate Heart of Mary”: consequently, he extended the feast to the Universal Church. That feast of the “Immaculate Heart” is fixed, not to a Sunday, but to the very Octave-Day of the Assumption. Mary in Heaven goes on interceding lovingly on our behalf. Her Heart is the symbol of the ardent love, which she fosters first for God and for her divine Son, but also of her maternal care for all human souls which Jesus entrusted her when He died. We exalt the particular holiness of her Heart, and we pray her to obtain “peace for all nations, freedom for the Church, conversion for the sinners, and for all faithful, love for chastity and the practice of all virtues” (Decree of May 4th 1944).
Prayer to the Heart of Mary
O Heart of Mary, Mother of God, and our Mother, heart most worthy of love, object of the complacency of the most Holy Trinity and deserving of all the veneration and tenderness of angels and of men, thou art most like the Heart of Jesus, of which thou art the most perfect image. O heart full of goodness and compassion for our miseries, vouchsafe to thaw the ice of our hearts, and make them to be entirely turned to the Heart of our divine Saviour. Pour into them the love of thy virtues; inflame them with that blessed fire with which thou continually burnest. Shut up within thyself the holy Church; guard it and be always its sweet asylum and its tower of strength against all the incursions of its enemies.
(Ind. of 60 days, once a day. –Pius VII. Feb 1, 1816)
In a book entitled Life of the Blessed Mother (1949), a Carmelite nun wrote the following counsel:
One of the most pleasing and most acceptable devotions to her heart is the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. Those who love the Blessed Virgin often gather around her and pity her in her martyrdom. Courage, O souls who love Mary! Take, alongside of her, that place which you would have taken had you had the opportunity to find yourself on the sorrowful way of the Cross and repeat in your heart this prayer in company with the Church:
O Mother, fountain of loveLet me feel your sorrowLet me weep with you.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer to Our Mother of Sorrows
MY SORROWFUL Mother, by the merit of that grief which thou didst feel in seeing thy beloved Jesus led to death, obtain for me the grace that I also may bear with patience the crosses which God sends me. Happy indeed shall I be if I only know how to accompany thee with my cross until death. Thou has carried a far heavier cross; and shall I, as sinner, refuse to carry mine? Ah, immaculate Virgin, from thee do I hope for help to bear all crosses with patience. Amen.
(Taken from “Our Lady Book” by Fr. Lasance)
October–Month Dedicated to The Most Holy Rosary
In his book entiled The Secret of The Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort writes:
Blessed is the Rosary which gives us this science and knowledge of our Blessed Lord through our mediations on His life, death, passion and glory. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if?and mark well what I say?if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary
O Virgin Mary, grant that the recitation of thy Rosary may be for me each day, in the midst of my manifold duties, a bond of unity in my actions, a tribute of filial piety, a sweet refreshment, an encouragement to walk joyfully along the path of duty. Grant, above all, O Virgin Mary, that the study of thy fifteen mysteries may form in my soul, little by little, a luminous atmosphere, pure, strengthening, and fragrant, which may penetrate my understanding, my will, my heart, my memory, my imagination, my whole being. So shall I acquire the habit of praying while I work, without the aid of formal prayers, by interior acts of admiration and of supplication, or by aspirations of love. I ask this of the, O Queen of the Holy Rosary, through St. Dominic, thy son of predilection, the renowned preacher of thy mysteries, and the faithful imitator of thy virtues. Amen.
(Taken from “Blessed Be God” by Rev. Callan and Rev. McHugh)
Pray the Holy Rosary with the Sisters
Renew your devotion during the month of October with this album containing the prayers of the Rosary interspersed with traditional hymns to Our Lady sung by the Sisters. Each album comes with a booklet containing the prayers of the Rosary. Samples and downloads available.
==> Order today at the Sisters’ shop.
November–Month Dedicated to The Holy Souls
In the book entitled The Purgatorian Manual, St. Alphonsus Ligouri writes:
The practice of recommending to God the souls in Purgatory, that He may mitigate the great pains which they suffer, and that He may soon bring them to His glory, is most pleasing to the Lord and most profitable to us. For these blessed souls are His eternal spouses, and most grateful are they to those who obtain their deliverance from prison, or even a mitigation of their torments. When they arrive in Heaven, they will be sure to remember all who have prayed for them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory
O gentle Heart of Jesus, ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love for the poor captive souls in Purgatory, have mercy on them, especially N….N….
Be not severe in Your judgements, but let some of Your Precious Blood fall upon the devouring flames.
And, Merciful Savior, send Your angels to conduct them to a place of refreshment, light and peace. Amen.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Eternal Rest, etc.)
Holy Souls Book
Edited by Rev. F. X. Lasance
We read in Sacred Scripture, ?It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins? (II Mach. 12:46). With its prayers and reflections, this Holy Souls Book will assist in cultivating a special devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, a devotion which is most pleasing to God. ==>Order today at the Sisters’ shop.
Purgatorian Manual
This small booklet contains many prayers and devotions in honor of the Holy Souls, and a short reflection, prayer, and practice for every day of November. ==>Order today at the Sisters’ shop.
God’s Bank Unlimitted: Help Yourself and the Holy Souls in Purgatory
In this work we learn of God?s great love for souls and His willingness to help those who ask for His assistance. Father Janser reminds us that even the shortest ejaculatory prayer said during the day could release a suffering soul in Purgatory. This prayer book is filled with over two-hundred indulgenced prayers and ejaculations. ==>Order today at the Sisters’ shop.
December–Month of The Immaculate Conception
On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX defined ex cathedra the dogma of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception with the following words:
“We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful….”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer In Honor of the Immaculate Conception
O God, Who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee, that as by the foreseen death of that same Son, Thou didst preserve her from all stain, so too though wouldst permit us, purified through her intercession, to come unto Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Indulgence of 100 days-Pius IX. March 31, 1876.)