Roman Catholic Blogger

I see His Blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of His eyes,
His Body gleams amid eternal snows,
His Tears fall from the skies.

I see His Face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice—and carven by His power
Rocks are His written words.

All pathways by His feet are worn,
His strong Heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.


By Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916)

Pope Benedict XVI declared Cardinal John Henry Newman, the brightest light of English Catholicism "blessed." The elevation of Newman to the honours of the altar, is the Church's formal declaration that he is in heaven, and can be invoked as intercessor on our behalf.

O most merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I beseech Thee by the agony of Thy Most Sacred Heart and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother, wash clean in Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world who are now in their agony and who are to die this day (here I especially include all those who'll die a sudden, unprovided for, or violent death) Amen.

V. Heart of Jesus,who didst suffer death's agony.
R. Have mercy on the dying.

From the Raccolta 300 days indulgence originally published by the Marians of Stockbridge MA date unknown but pre-zipcode era.

I offer to God the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, his Passion, Death and Glorious Resurrection, with all the Masses being offered all over the world for:

(a) The glory of God.
(b) The salvation of all, particularly all those that will die this day.
(c) The holy souls.

This name is all powerful, I will repeat it often each day, JESUS, JESUS, calling on him with love and confidence.

Extract from the Pieta
Prayer Book (Our Lord's Revelation to Mutter Vogel).

"One should NEVER attack a priest, even when he's in error, rather one should pray and do penance that I'll grant him My grace again. He alone fully represents Me, even when he doesn't live after My example!

"When a Priest falls we should extend him a helping hand through prayer and not through attacks! I myself will be his judge, no one but I! Whoever voices judgment over a priest has voiced it over me; child, never let a Priest be attacked, take up his defense. Child, never judge your confessor, rather pray much for him and offer every Thursday, through the hands of My Blessed Mother, Holy Communion (for Him). Never again accept an out-of-the-way word about a priest, and speak no unkind word (about them). Even it were TRUE! Every Priest is My vicar and My Heart will be sickened and insulted because of it~ If you hear a judgment (against a Priest) pray a Hail Mary."

"If you see a Priest who celebrates the Holy Mass unworthily then say nothing about him, rather tell it to Me alone! I stand beside Him on the altar! Oh pray much for my priests, that they'll love purity above all, that they'll celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with pure hands and heart. Certainly the Holy Sacrifice is one and the same even when it's celebrated by an unworthy priest, but the graces called down upon the people is not the same!"

The Feast of St. Joseph honors the foster-father of Jesus, St. Joseph. He is the patron saint of fathers, families, workers, and the Church. His main feast falls on March 19.

Happy Father's Day!

Matt Talbot was born May 1856 in Dublin Ireland. He was one of twelve children, six of whom lived to adulthood. His father was a heavy drinker and, as a result, the family grew up in poverty. Typical of his era, Matt spent just one year at school. There was no compulsory education and he was unable to read or write. He entered the workforce at age twelve, employed by E & J Burke, a firm which bottled beer. His drinking began with taking the dregs from the bottom of bottles, which had been returned. Within two years, he graduated to whiskey and by the time he was sixteen, he came home drunk regularly.

By the time he was in his twenties, he spent all his wages and spare time in O'Meara's Pub. As far as the neighbors in that area of Dublin were concerned, Matt Talbot was a habitual drunk. Today with our understanding of the illness of alcoholism there is little doubt that he was already a chronic alcoholic.

Drink had become Matt's only interest in life. When his wages were spent, he borrowed and scrounged for money. He pawned his clothes and boots. He supplemented his wages by doing extra work after hours. Among other things he minded horses outside a tavern, while the owners enjoyed themselves inside. The tips he received bought him more drink.

He became a thief, once stealing a fiddle from a blind man. On Saturday he would come home with just a shilling from his wages for his mother. His life had become unmanageable. His drinking companions had several hobbies: swimming, playing cards, and girl friends. Matt had only one —alcoholic drink.

By the time he was twenty-eight, he was well on the road to self-destruction, when a traumatic incident changed his life. On a Saturday morning in 1884, he waited outside O'Meara's without a penny in his pocket. He had been unemployed that week. His problem, he told himself, would be quickly solved. When he had money, he shared it generously with his drinking friends. Therefore, he reasoned, they would not reject him in his misfortune.

But they did. One by one, they passed him. Some greeted him; others ignored him. Perhaps he had scrounged money from them too often, but they left him standing on the corner. Matt Talbot was stunned and shocked. Years later, he said that he was "cut to the heart." But, it was a moment of grace. After some time thinking about his problem, he realized that he was totally enslaved to drink. He made his way home slowly. His mother was preparing the mid-day meal when he arrived.

In nineteenth century Ireland it was common for someone who wished to stop drinking to take a solemn pledge before a priest to abstain for a period of time. Mrs. Talbot could not believe her eyes when Matt came home sober on that fateful Saturday morning. "Ma, I'm going to take the pledge for life," he said. He headed off to a nearby seminary where the priest persuaded him that he should take the pledge for ninety days only.

Those three months were sheer hell. We understand today the withdrawal symptoms of addiction, but in 1884 Matt Talbot had no one to share his suffering — the hallucination, the depression and nausea. But he had an iron will, a rock-like stubbornness that stood him well down through the years. "I know that I will drink again when the three months are up," he would remark to his mother.

To fill in the time he used to spend in O'Meara's, Matt went for a walk every evening after work. During one of those walks his resolution almost broke. He passed Bushe's Public House about a mile from his home just as it opened. He caught the strong smell of beer and saw the crowded bar. The barman was busy serving the local men, and he paid little attention to this stranger waiting at the counter. Matt felt humiliated for the second time within a few weeks. Deeply hurt, he stormed out of the bar down the street and into a Jesuit Church. That evening he made another resolution, never to carry money with him. He kept that resolution for the rest of his life.

Dropping into a Church to rest during his walks became a habit. Matt was neither fit nor religious-minded. He grew tired quickly and since he could not rest in a Tavern or sit down on a public street, a church provided the haven he sought. Gradually he began to pray, to ask God to help him.

To find the strength to remain sober he decided to attend Mass every morning before work and to receive Holy Communion. This was very unusual in the 1880's when the average good layman went to Mass just on Sunday and received Holy Communion only at Easter and Christmas. At the end of three months, Matt took the pledge to abstain from alcohol for six months and finally took it for life.

Matt Talbot now turned all his effort to increasing his union with God and developing his life of prayer. The strict ascetical life of the early Irish monks attracted him. Their love of prayer with the emphasis on penance and humility, and manual labour dedicated to God, appealed to him. He turned to a Jesuit Father, Father James Welshe to help him.

His austere daily program may shock us today in an affluent society that demands comfort. He allowed himself just four or five hours sleep at night and arose about 5 a.m. to prepare for early Mass. Then he would return home for breakfast. Afterwards he would set off for work in the lumberyard of T. & C. Martin. He was a conscientious worker. Many years later, one of his former foremen described him as "the best worker in Dublin" who was often chosen to set the pace for others. But at a time when Dublin labourers were often exploited, he was not a "bosses" man. He had learned to read and write and was quite ready to discuss the rights of workers.

Since he was a member of many religious associations, he attended a meeting almost every evening. When he came home about 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., it was time for his spiritual reading. His spiritual reading ended about I a.m., and he retired for four hours rest before beginning his daily routine again. He did not go to work on Sunday but went to one of the City Churches and would kneel in an obscure corner from the first mass at 6 a.m. until mid-day.

Despite his austerities, Matt was a small tough man — "as strong as a little horse", according to a fellow worker. He had an iron will and a constitution to match. Neither the other workers in T. & C. Martin's, nor the fellow dockers on Dublin's waterfront had an idea that he was leading a life modelled on the early Irish monks. He was a happy little man, although more silent than others. "Matt smiled at everything except a dirty joke," a friend remarked. But many workers knew about his generosity. Matt lent them money to buy clothes or shoes for their children or to pay overdue rent.

Matt Talbot died suddenly from a heart attack in Granby Lane on the way to Mass on Sunday, June 7th, 1925. He was buried in what was virtually a pauper's grave in Glasnevin Cemetery a few days later.

The story of his life came to light because when his body was undressed, three chains were discovered wrapped around it. Inquiries disclosed that he practiced a devotion known as the slavery to Mary. The underlying idea was that a person who considered himself a spiritual slave to the Mother of God would remain close to her and to Jesus, her son. The devotion included wearing one fine, loose chain. It was typical of Matt Talbot to wear three.

In 1975 the Holy See conferred the title "Venerable" on him, which means that from a purely human point of view, Matt Talbot has the qualifications of a Saint. If this Opinion is confirmed by the Miracles required by Canon Law, he will be canonized.

The Golden Arrow prayer was dictated by Jesus to Sr. Marie of St Peter and of the Holy Family, a Carmelite nun of Tours, in 1843. It is an Act of Praise and Reparation for Blasphemy. It is also a reparation for the profanation of Sunday and the Holy Days of Obligation.

Prayers of reparation are recited with the intent to repair the sins of others, e.g. when the name of Jesus Christ is taken in vain, for the repair of the sin of blasphemy or the insults against and sufferings of Jesus in Calvary. Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the “unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified”

Jesus said: “This Golden Arrow will wound My Heart delightfully, and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy.”

The Golden Arrow Prayer

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable,
most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God
be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored
and glorified in Heaven, on earth,
and under the earth,
by all the creatures of God,
and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for me is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Your alter (in Your presence) eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Your loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow You, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the vows of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Your Law. We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against You; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy days, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against You and Your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Your Vicar on earth and Your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Your Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which You have founded. Would, O divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Your divine honor, the satisfaction You once made to Your eternal Father on the cross and which You continue to renews daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Your grace, for all neglect of Your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending You and to bring as many as possible to follow You.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowing gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to You, so that we may one day come to that happy home, where You with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, world without end. Amen.

---

O Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, look down in mercy from heaven, where thou art enthroned as Queen, upon me, a miserable sinner, thine unworthy servant. Although I know full well my own unworthiness, yet in order to atone for the offenses that are done to thee by impious and blasphemous tongues, from the depths of my heart I praise and extol thee as the purest, the fairest, the holiest creature of all God's handiwork.
I bless thy holy name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever virgin, conceived without stain of sin, co-redemptrix of the human race. I bless the Eternal Father who chose thee in an especial way for His daughter; I bless the Word Incarnate who took upon Himself our nature in thy bosom and so made thee His Mother; I bless the Holy Spirit who took thee as His bride. All honor, praise and thanksgiving to the ever-blessed Trinity, who predestined thee and loved thee so exceedingly from all eternity as to exalt thee above all creatures to the most sublime heights.
O Virgin, holy and merciful, obtain for all who offend thee the grace of repentance, and graciously accept this poor act of homage from me thy servant, obtaining likewise for me from thy divine Son the pardon and remission of all my sins. Amen.

Feastday: May 26
Patron of Rome

If one had to choose one saint who showed the humorous side of holiness that would Philip Neri.

Born in 1515 in Florence, he showed the impulsiveness and spontaneity of his character from the time he was a boy. In fact one incident almost cost him his life. Seeing a donkey loaded with fruit for market, the little boy had barely formed the thought of jumping on the donkey's back before he had done it. The donkey, surprised, lost his footing, and donkey, fruit, and boy tumbled into the cellar with the boy winding up on the bottom! Miraculously he was unhurt.

His father was not successful financially and at eighteen Philip was sent to work with an older cousin who was a successful businessman. During this time, Philip found a favorite place to pray up in the fissure of a mountain that had been turned into a chapel. We don't know anything specific about his conversion but during these hours of prayer he decided to leave worldly success behind and dedicate his life to God.

After thanking his cousin, he went to Rome in 1533 where he was the live-in tutor of the sons of a fellow Florentine. He studied philosophy and theology until he thought his studies were interfering with his prayer life. He then stopped his studies, threw away his books, and lived as a kind of hermit.

Night was his special time of prayer. After dark he would go out in the streets, sometimes to churches, but most often into the catacombs of St. Sebastiano to pray. During one of these times of prayer he felt a globe of light enter his mouth and sink into his heart. This experience gave him so much energy to serve God that he went out to work at the hospital of the incurables and starting speaking to others about God, everyone from beggars to bankers.

In 1548 Philip formed a confraternity with other laymen to minister to pilgrims who came to Rome without food or shelter. The spiritual director of the confraternity convinced Philip that he could do even more work as a priest. After receiving instruction from this priest, Philip was ordained in 1551.

At his new home, the church of San Girolamo, he learned to love to hear confessions. Young men especially found in him the wisdom and direction they needed to grow spiritually. But Philip began to realize that these young men needed something more than absolution; they needed guidance during their daily lives. So Philip began to ask the young men to come by in the early afternoon when they would discuss spiritual readings and then stay for prayer in the evening. The numbers of the men who attended these meetings grew rapidly. In order to handle the growth, Philip and a fellow priest Buonsignore Cacciaguerra gave a more formal structure to the meetings and built a room called the Oratory to hold them in.

Philip understood that it wasn't enough to tell young people not to do something -- you had to give them something to do in its place. So at Carnival time, when the worst excesses were encouraged, Philip organized a pilgrimage to the Seven Churches with a picnic accompanied by instrumental music for the mid-day break. After walking twelve miles in one day everyone was too tired to be tempted!

In order to guide his followers, Philip made himself available to everyone at any hour -- even at night. He said some of the most devout people were those who had come to him at night. When others complained, Philip answered, "They can chop wood on my back so long as they do not sin."

Not everyone was happy about this growing group and Philip and Buonsignore were attacked by the priests they lived with. But eventually Philip and his companions were vindicated and went on with their work.

In 1555, the Pope's Vicar accused Philip of "introducing novelties" and ordered him to stop the meetings of the Oratory. Philip was brokenhearted but obeyed immediately. The Pope only let him start up the Oratory again after the sudden death of his accuser. Despite all the trouble this man had caused, Philip would not let anyone say anything against the man or even imply that his sudden death was a judgment from God.

One church, for Florentines in Rome, had practically forced him to bring the Oratory to their church. But when gossip and accusations started, they began to harass the very people they had begged to have nearby! At that point, Philip decided it would be best for the group to have their own church. They became officially known as the Congregation of the Oratory, made up of secular priests and clerics.

Philip was known to be spontaneous and unpredictable, charming and humorous.

He seemed to sense the different ways to bring people to God. One man came to the Oratory just to make fun of it. Philip wouldn't let the others throw him out or speak against him. He told them to be patient and eventually the man became a Dominican. On the other hand, when he met a condemned man who refused to listen to any pleas for repentance, Philip didn't try gentle words, but grabbed the man by the collar and threw him to the ground. The move shocked the criminal into repentance and he made a full confession.

Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself. Some of his lessons in humility seem cruel, but they were tinged with humor like practical jokes and were related with gratitude by the people they helped. His lessons always seem to be tailored directly to what the person needed. One member who was later to become a cardinal was too serious and so Philip had him sing the Misere at a wedding breakfast. When one priest gave a beautiful sermon, Philip ordered him to give the same sermon six times in a row so people would think he only had one sermon.

Philip preferred spiritual mortification to physical mortification. When one man asked Philip if he could wear a hair shirt, Philip gave him permission -- if he wore the hair shirt outside his clothes! The man obeyed and found humility in the jokes and name-calling he received.

There were unexpected benefits to his lessons in humility. Another member, Baronius, wanted to speak at the meetings about hellfire and eternal punishment. Philip commanded him instead to speak of church history. For 27 years Baronius spoke to the Oratory about church history. At the end of that time he published his talks as a widely respected and universally praised books on ecclesiastical history!

Philip did not escape this spiritual mortification himself. As with others, his own humbling held humor. There are stories of him wearing ridiculous clothes or walking around with half his beard shaved off. The greater his reputation for holiness the sillier he wanted to seem. When some people came from Poland to see the great saint, they found him listening to another priest read to him from joke books.

Philip was very serious about prayer, spending hours in prayer. He was so easily carried away that he refused to preach in public and could not celebrate Mass with others around. But he when asked how to pray his answer was, "Be humble and obedient and the Holy Spirit will teach you."

Philip died in 1595 after a long illness at the age of eighty years.
In his footsteps:

We often worry more about what others think that about what God thinks. Our fear of people laughing us often stops us from trying new things or serving God. Do something today that you are afraid might make you look a little ridiculous. Then reflect on how it makes you feel. Pray about your experience with God.
Prayer:

Saint Philip Neri, we take ourselves far too seriously most of the time. Help us to add humor to our perspective -- remembering always that humor is a gift from God. Amen

HISTORY OF THE ROSARY
Fr. William Saunders

The rosary is one of the most cherished prayers of our Catholic Church. Introduced by the Creed, the Our Father, three Hail Marys and the Doxology ("Glory Be"), and concluded with the Salve Regina, the rosary involves the recitation of five decades consisting of the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and the Doxology. During this recitation, the individual meditates on the saving mysteries of our Lord's life and the faithful witness of our Blessed Mother.

Journeying through the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Luminous mysteries of the rosary, the individual brings to mind our Lord's incarnation, His Mission, His passion and death and His resurrection from the dead. In so doing, the rosary assists us in growing in a deeper appreciation of these mysteries, in uniting our life more closely to our Lord and in imploring His graced assistance to live the faith. We also ask for the prayers of our Blessed Mother, who leads all believers to her Son.

The origins of the rosary are "sketchy" at best. The use of "prayer beads" and the repeated recitation of prayers to aid in meditation stem from the earliest days of the Church and has roots in pre-Christian times. Evidence exists from the Middle Ages that strings of beads were used to count Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Actually, these strings of beads became known as "Paternosters," the Latin for "Our Father."

The structure of the rosary gradually evolved between the 12th and 15th centuries. Eventually 50 Hail Marys were recited and linked with verses of psalms or other phrases evoking the lives of Jesus and Mary. During this time, this prayer form became known as the rosarium ("rose garden"), actually a common term to designate a collection of similar material, such as an anthology of stories on the same subject or theme. During the 16th century, the structure of the five-decade rosary based on the three sets of mysteries prevailed.

Tradition does hold that St. Dominic (d. 1221) devised the rosary as we know it. Moved by a vision of our Blessed Mother, he preached the use of the rosary in his missionary work among the Albigensians, who had denied the mystery of Christ. Some scholars take exception to St. Dominic's role in forming the rosary. The earliest accounts of his life do not mention it, the Dominican constitutions do not link him with it and contemporaneous portraits do not include it as a symbol to identify the saint.

In 1922, Dom Louis Cougaud stated, "The various elements which enter into the composition of that Catholic devotion commonly called the rosary are the product of a long and gradual development which began before St. Dominic's time, which continued without his having any share in it, and which only attained its final shape several centuries after his death." However, other scholars would rebut that St. Dominic not so much "invented" the rosary as he preached its use to convert sinners and those who had strayed from the faith. Moreover, at least a dozen popes have mentioned St. Dominic's connection with the rosary, sanctioning his role as at least a "pious belief."

The rosary gained greater popularity in the 1500s, when Moslem Turks were ravaging Eastern Europe. Recall that in 1453, Constantinople had fallen to the Moslems, leaving the Balkans and Hungary open to conquest. With Moslems raiding even the coast of Italy, the control of the Mediterranean was now at stake.

In 1571, Pope Pius V organized a fleet under the command of Don Juan of Austria the half-brother of King Philip II of Spain. While preparations were underway, the Holy Father asked all of the faithful to say the rosary and implore our Blessed Mother's prayers, under the title Our Lady of Victory, that our Lord would grant victory to the Christians. Although the Moslem fleet outnumbered that of the Christians in both vessels and sailors, the forces were ready to meet in battle. The Christian flagship flew a blue banner depicting Christ crucified. On October 7, 1571, the Moslems were defeated at the Battle of Lepanto. The following year, Pope St. Pius V established the Feast of the Holy Rosary on October 7, where the faithful would not only remember this victory, but also give thanks to the Lord for all of His benefits and remember the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother.

The fact that our Church continues to include the Feast of the Holy Rosary on the liturgical calendar testifies to the importance and goodness of this form of prayer. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, "The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description."

Fr. Saunders is president of the Notre Dame Institute and associate pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria.

This article appeared in the October 6, 1994 issue of "The Arlington Catholic Herald." Courtesy of the "Arlington Catholic Herald" diocesan newspaper of the Arlington (VA) diocese. For subscription information, call 1-800-377-0511 or write 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 607 Arlington, VA 22203.

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The Rosary calls to mind the most important events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. These events are called Mysteries. There are since October 2002 twenty mysteries (Gospel stories)in it, and are divided into four groups:

Five are Joyful, usually said on Mondays and Saturdays;

Five are Luminous (Thursdays)

Five are Sorrowful ( Tuesdays and Fridays );

Five are Glorious ( Wednesdays and Sundays ).



The Five Joyful Mysteries are:

The Annunciation

The Visitation

The Birth of Jesus

The Presentation

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple.

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The Five Mysteries of Light are:

The Baptism of The Lord

The Wedding Of Cana

The Proclamation of The Kingdom

The Transfiguration.

The Institution of The Eucharist.

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The Five Sorrowful Mysteries are:

The Agony in the Garden

The Scourging

The Crowning with Thorns

The Carrying of the Cross

The Crucifixion

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The Five Glorious Mysteries are:

The Resurrection

The Ascension

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Assumption of Our Lady

The Coronation of Our Lady.


You begin the Rosary by saying the Creed, one Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and Glory be. Then they say a decade in honour of each mystery.
FIRST THE ANNUNCIATION, OUR FATHER, TEN HAIL MARY’S, GLORY BE….

Think of each story while you are saying the decade.


Our Lady gave 15 promises to those who recite the Holy Rosary:

The following are the 15 promises of Mary to Christians who recite the rosary:
(given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.

2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.

3. The rosary will be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.

4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.

5. Those who recommend themselves to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

6. Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.

7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.

8. Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.

9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.

10. The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.

12. All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.

14. All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son, Jesus Christ.

15. Devotion to my rosary is a great sign of predestination.

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Downloadable Audio Rosaries

The picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is painted on wood, with background of gold. It is Byzantine in style and is supposed to have been painted in the thirteenth century. It represents the Mother of God holding the Divine Child while the Archangels Michael and Gabriel present before Him the instruments of His Passion. Over the figures in the picture are some Greek letters which form the abbreviated words Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Archangel Michael, and Archangel Gabriel respectively. It was brought to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century by a pious merchant, who, dying there, ordered by his will that the picture should be exposed in a church for public veneration. It was exposed in the church of San Matteo, Via Merulana, between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. Crowds flocked to this church, and for nearly three hundred years many graces were obtained through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. The picture was then popularly called the Madonna di San Matteo. The church was served for a time by the Hermits of St. Augustine, who had sheltered their Irish brethren in their distress. These Augustinians were still in charge when the French invaded Rome (1812) and destroyed the church. The picture disappeared; it remained hidden and neglected for over forty years, but a series of providential circumstances between 1863 and 1865 led to its discovery in an oratory of the Augustinian Fathers at Santa Maria in Posterula.

The pope, Pius IX, who as a boy had prayed before the picture in San Matteo, became interested in the discovery and in a letter dated 11 Dec., 1865 to Father General Mauron, C.SS.R., ordered that Our Lady of Perpetual Succour should be again publicly venerated in Via Merulana, and this time at the new church of St. Alphonsus. The ruins of San Matteo were in the grounds of the Redemptorist Convent. This was but the first favour of the Holy Father towards the picture. He approved of the solemn translation of the picture (26 April, 1866), and its coronation by the Vatican Chapter (23 June, 1867). He fixed the feast as duplex secundae classis, on the Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and by a decree dated May, 1876, approved of a special office and Mass for the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. This favour later on was also granted to others. Learning that the devotion to Our Lady under this title had spread far and wide, Pius IX raised a confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Alphonsus, which had been erected in Rome, to the rank of an arch-confraternity and enriched it with many privileges and indulgences. He was amongst the first to visit the picture in its new home, and his name is the first in the register of the arch-confraternity. Two thousand three hundred facsimiles of the Holy Picture have been sent from St. Alphonsus's church in Rome to every part of the world. At the present day not only altars, but churches and dioceses (e.g. in England, Leeds and Middlesborough; in the United States Savannah) are dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. In some places, as in the United States the title has been translated Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants departed the remission of their sins, that, through pious supplications, they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Amen.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good, for His
Mercy endures forever! (Ps. 136)

O Lord, our God
We place all our TRUST in You,
because You are mercy itself.
We repent of our sins and turn to You for mercy.
We trust You to provide for our every need,
according to Your will.
Help us to forgive others as You forgive us.
We promise to be merciful by our deeds, words, and prayers.
Though we have fears because of human weakness,
we rely on Your infinite goodness and mercy.
We entrust to Your mercy our very lives,
our present situation and our uncertain future.
We entrust to You the future of our planet,
our Church, our nations, our families, and all our needs.
With loud cries we implore Your mercy on us and the whole world.
Look upon us created in Your image and likeness.
Form us in the Heart of Mary by the power of the
Holy Spirit into living images of mercy.
May all come to know the depth of Your mercy
and sing the praises of Your mercy forever.
AMEN!

With Ecclesiastical Approval:
Most Rev. John A. Marshall
Bishop of Springfield, MA
February 28, 1992
Written by Bob Digan
© 1992 National Shrine of The Divine Mercy

1. Begin with the Sign of the Cross, 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and The Apostles Creed.

2. Then on the Our Father Beads say the following:
Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

3. On the 10 Hail Mary Beads say the following:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

(Repeat step 2 and 3 for all five decades).

4. Conclude with (three times):
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.



In 1933, God gave Sister Faustina a striking vision of His Mercy, Sister tells us:

"I saw a great light, with God the Father in the midst of it.
Between this light and the earth I saw Jesus nailed to the Cross
and in such a way that God, wanting to look upon the earth, had to
look through Our Lord's wounds and I understood that God blessed
the earth for the sake of Jesus."

Of another vision on Sept. 13, 1935, she writes:

"I saw an Angel, the executor of God's wrath... about to strike
the earth...I began to beg God earnestly for the world with words
which I heard interiorly. As I prayed in this way, I saw the
Angel's helplessness, and he could not carry out the just
punishment...."

The following day an inner voice taught her to say this prayer on
ordinary rosary beads:

"First say one 'Our Father', 'Hail Mary', and 'I believe'. Then on
the large beads say the following words:

'Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement
for our sins and those of the whole world.'

On the smaller beads you are to say the following words:

'For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the
whole world.'

In conclusion you are to say these words three times:

'Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us
and on the whole world'.

Jesus said later to Sister Faustina:

"Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught you. Anyone who
says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of death. Priests
will recommend it to sinners as the last hope. Even the most
hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will
receive grace from My Infinite Mercy. I want the whole world to
know My Infinite Mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to
those who trust in My Mercy...."

"....When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I
will stand between My Father and the dying person not as the just
judge but as the Merciful Savior".

Prayer 1

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before Your face I humbly kneel
and, with burning soul, pray and beseech You to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity; true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment.

While I contemplate, with great love and tender pity,
Your five most precious wounds, pondering over them within me
and calling to mind the words which David,
Your prophet, said of You, my Jesus:

"They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones."

Amen.


Prayer 2

O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows,"
I venerate Thy sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now It has become as it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless under those disfigured features, I recognize Thine infinite Love, and I am consumed with desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up so abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, whose adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy Divine image and to set me on fire with Thy love, that so I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.

In a metaphorical sense though this is not too far off the mark.
Frequently using as many of the sacraments as one can - such as Sacrament of Reconciliation, Eucharist. Also praying DAILY for the bare minimum of 15 minutes - but hopefully a lot more. Penance is very important too - prayer, fasting, acts of charity, acts of mercy etc. All wrapped up in this is actually living one's daily life as one professes they believe - living a chaste and morally good life and setting an example for others. Too many marginal Christians think all one had to do is "believe" and not worry about sinning so much. This is a wrong hearted attitude. We are all called to be saints and to be holy as our heavenly father is holy. One MUST live as they profess they believe - that is a true believer.

Also one should be trying to avoid the temptations of sin - don't go to that bachelor's party at the exotic dancer club with "the boys" etc. One wants to develop a Christian habit so its reflexive and part of us - this is what helps one stay in grace and be holy.

Ask others to pray for you and pray for them too - sharing of grace is possible in this manner. Also ask for the saints intercessions since they are before God's altar 24/7 and do not need to sleep or rest like we do. The heavenly family is there for us as is the church here on earth. Pray for the souls in purgatory - each soul that is advanced is like gaining an eternal friend who will pray for you all your life.

By being holy and free from grave sin one is then predisposed to progressively receive sanctifying grace from the sacraments and actually grow their spiritual capacity. It's not just a matter of wanting to crawl into heaven to be "the least in heaven". No, no one gets to heaven on his own - he has to bring friends (by example and evangelizing). One wants to soar into heaven to be among the greatest in heave to bring God a large return for the Grace that He has invested in us - not just for the reward He will give us but for full and complete love of God. "Be all you can be" should be the motto of every Christian as opposed to "doing the minimums". The more grace one receives and the more often we advance and don't stagnate at one level of spiritual maturity the more secure one's salvation becomes by habit-of-grace in a sort of reverse concupiscence that leads eventually to theosis as one is given their heavenly crown.

Copy of a letter of the Oration found in the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, preserved in a silver box by His Holiness and by the Emporers and Empresses of the Christian Faith. St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, with St. Matilda and St. Bridget, wishing to know something of the Passion of Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers, upon which there appeared to them Our Lord Jesus Christ who spoke to them in the following manner:

I descended from Heaven to the Earth in order to convert you. In olden times, people were religious, and their harvests were abundant; at present, on the contrary, they are scanty. If you want to reap an abundant harvest you must not work on Sunday, for Sunday you must go to Church and pray to God to forgive your sins. He gave you six days in which to work and one for rest and devotion and to tender your help to the poor and assist the Church. Those people who brawl against My Religion and cast slurs on this Sacred Letter will be forsaken by Me. On the contrary, those people who shall carry a copy of this letter with them shall be free from death by drowning and from sudden death. They shall be free from all contagious diseases and lightning; they shall not die without confession, and shall be free from their enemies and from the hand of wrongful authority, and from all their slanderers and false witnesses. Women in peril at child-birth will, by keeping this Oration about them, immediately overcome the difficulty. In the houses where this Oration is kept, no evil thing will ever happen: and forty days before the death of a person who has this Oration about him or her, the Blessed Virgin will appear to him or her. So said St. Gregorious. To all those faithful who shall recite for three years, each day, 2 Paters, Glorias, and Aves, in honor of the drops of blood I lost, I will concede the following five graces: 1st The plenary indulgence and remission of your sins. 2nd You will be free from the pains of Purgatory. 3rd If you should die before completing the said 3 years, for you it will be the same as if you had completed them. 4th It will be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy Faith. 5th I will descend from Heaven to take your soul and that of your relatives, until the fourth generation. Be it known that the number of armed soldiers were 150; those who trailed me while I was bound were 23. The number of executioners of justice were 83; the blows received on my head were 150; those on my stomach, 108; kicks on my shoulders, 80. I was led, bound with cords by the hair, 24 times; spits in the face were 180; I was beaten on the body 6666 times; beaten on the head, 110 times. I was roughly pushed, and at 12 o'clock was lifted up by the hair; pricked with thorns and pulled by the beard 23 times; received 20 wounds on the head; thorns of marine junks, 72; pricks of thorns in the head, 110; mortal thorns in the forhead, 3. I was afterwards flogged and dressed as a mocked king; wounds in the body, 1000. The soldiers who led me to the Calvary were 608; those who watched me were 3, and those who mocked me were 1008; the drops of blood which I lost were 28,430. Benedetta DA S.S.; Pope Leo XIII, in Roma 5 Aprile 1890

Remember Dear Christian
you have but one soul to save,
One God to love and serve,
One eternity to expect,
Death will come soon,
Judgment will follow, and then,
Heaven or Hell Forever.

Therefore
O Child of Jesus and Mary,
Avoid sin and
all dangerous occasions of sin.
Pray without ceasing.
Go frequently to Confession
and to Holy Communion.
Begin and end every day
by reciting the Hail Mary
three times to honour
The Blessed Virgin Mary.

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