Catholic Universe

SEPTEMBER Beauteous Babe, her arms, between, Sweet SEPTEMBER seems to say, “Hither, hence, and homage pay To the little new-born Queen !” ~ E. C. DONNELLY ~ Short Lives of the Saints (1884)

✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯ 2026 September ~ Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

8/31/26 Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion If you have an ardent desire for the sensible love of God, a desire that cannot but be pleasing to Him provided you are at the same time resigned to be deprived of it, remember that according to Saint John Chrysostom it can be obtained only by fidelity to prayer. God wishes, says the Saint, to make us realize by experience that we cannot have His love but from Himself, and that this love, which is the true happiness of our souls, is not to be acquired by the reflections of our minds or the natural efforts of our hearts, but by the gratuitous infusion of the Holy Ghost. Yes, this love is so great a good that God wishes to be the sole dispenser of it: He bestows it only in proportion as we ask it of Him, and ordinarily makes us wait for some time before He grants it. ~ Light and Peace, R.P. Quadrupani, Barnabite (1904), written in 1795. Sedes Sapientiæ, ora pro nobis. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

A religious of the “Order of Our Lady pf Mercy,” he gave himself up as a captive to the pagans in order to ransom the Christians. He was in chains for eight months. He died in 1240. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ August 31st~ The FEAST of ST. RAYMOND NONNATUS, Confessor O GOD, Who didst by Thy grace make Blessed Raymond, Thy Confessor, work wonders in redeeming Thy faithful from slavery among the infidels, grant, we beseech Thee, by his intercession, that, being freed from the bondage of our sins, we may with free minds always perform such things as are pleasing in Thy sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, August 31, St. Raymond Nonnatus ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ St. Raymond Nonnatus, pray for us.

Sayings of the Saints “We must do everything through a motive of love, and nothing through compulsion. Our love for obedience must be greater than our fear of disobedience.” ~ St. Francis de Sales St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

2 of 2 Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion Act of Hope In spite of these vague fears that seem to extinguish hope within my soul, I know that although Thou art the mighty and strong God before whom the cherubim veil themselves with their wings, the just and all-seeing God who discovers blemishes in the purest souls, still Thou wishest to be in the most Holy Sacrament only the Victim whose Blood effaces the sins of the world; the Good Shepherd who hastens after the strayed sheep and carries it tenderly and unreproachfully back to the fold; the divine Mediator who comes not to judge but to save. All this I know, O my God! and therefore I hope. Act of Love Notwithstanding the coldness and insensibility that benumb my soul, I know that I love Thee, O my God! since my will prefers Thy service to all the joys of this world, since Thy grace is the sole good to which I aspire, and because I suffer so much by reason of my lack of sensible love for Thee. Act of Desire No, I am not indifferent, You know, O my God! that I am not indifferent to this Most Holy Sacrament which I approach unmoved by any sensible feeling: for You see that although I find in Holy Communion neither relish nor consolation, I would yet make any sacrifice in order to receive it. Act of Contrition I feel neither hatred nor horror of sins to which the world does not attach shame and contempt; I experience no sensible sorrow for the sins I have committed, but I know, O my God! that, with the assistance of Thy grace, my will denounces them, for I am resolved to commit them no more. I have taken this resolution because sin displeases Thee and because all that swerves from eternal order is abhorrent to Thy infinite sanctity. I believe, then, that I am contrite, O my God! because I believe in Thy promises, and if Thou dost not always grant us the consolation of realizing our contrition, Thou wilt never refuse its justifying virtue to those who humbly implore it; and this I do. No, my God, I shall not pray Thee to grant me sensible enjoyment, not even that of Thy spiritual gifts: what I implore of Thy grace is to keep my will ever turned towards Thee and never to permit it to fall or wander anew on the earth. Lord! into Thy hands I commend my spirit. (continued) ~ Light and Peace, R.P. Quadrupani, Barnabite (1904), written in 1795. Sedes Sapientiæ, ora pro nobis. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion Act of Faith Notwithstanding, then, the doubts that cross my mind, I wish to believe, O my God! and I do believe all that Thy holy Church has taught me. I have not forgotten that brilliant light of Faith which Thou didst cause to illumine my soul in the days of mercy in order that the precious remembrance of it should serve me as support in the days of trial and temptation. (continued)

Born in Lima, Peru, St. Rose is the first American Saint. At fifteen years of age she received the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, and for 16 years lived a life of mortification and penance. She died in 1617 at thirty-one years of age. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ August 30th~ The FEAST of ST. ROSE of LIMA, Virgin O ALMIGHTY GOD, Giver of all good gifts, Who didst will that Blessed Rose bedewed with Thy heavenly graces, should blossom forth in the Indies, a lovely flower of virginity and patience, grant to us Thy servants, so to run in the fragrance of her sweetness, that we may be found worthy to become a sweet savor of Christ. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, August 30, St. Rose of Lima ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ St. Rose of Lima, pray for us.

2 of 2 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ Matt. 6, 24-33. At that time, Jesus said to His disciples said to His disciples: “No man serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? But which of you by being anxious about it can add to his stature a single cubit? And as for clothing, why are you anxious? Consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which flourishes today but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith! Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What are we to put on?’ (for after all these things the Gentiles seek); for your Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be given you besides.” S. Praise be to Thee, O Christ. Gospel, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧

1 of 2 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST God’s providence takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. But we “of little faith” attend with such anxiety to our temporal interests that we even neglect our religious duties. When we seek the supernatural first, we may confidenrly rely on God’s help in our daily affairs. (continued)

2 of 2 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ FOURTEENTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST KEEP, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy, and because without Thee human frailty goes astray, may we be ever withheld by Thy grace from what is hurtful, and directed to what is profitable. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CUSTÓDI, Dómine, quǽsumus, Ecclésiam tuam propitiatióne perpétua: et quia sine te lábitur humána mortálitas; tuis semper auxíliis et abstrahátur a nóxiis et ad salutária dirigátur. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesus Christum fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen. Collect, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal, 1950 - English ~ The New Roman Missal, 1937 - Latin ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧

1 of 2 “Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they?” Matt. 6, 26

Sayings of the Saints “Obedience is the only virtue that plants the other virtues in the heart and preserves them after they have been planted.” ~ St. Gregory the Great St. Gregory the Great, pray for us.

2 of 2 Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion Act of Confidence I will go unto the altar of God. - Psalm 42 It is obedience, O my God! that leads me to Thy Holy Table: the tender words by which Thou hast invited us would not have sufficed to draw me, for in the troubled state of my soul I cannot be sure they are addressed to me. Misery and infirmity are claims for admission to Thy Feast, but nothing can dispense from the nuptial garment. Therefore when I turn my eyes on myself, after having raised them to Thee, I doubt, I hesitate, I tremble; for if I go from Thee I flee from life, and if I approach unworthily, to my other sins I add the crime of sacrilege. But Thy merciful wisdom, O my God, whilst foreseeing our every need, has foreseen all our weaknesses and has prepared helps for us against both presumption and distrust. For if Thou hast not willed that, certain of Thy grace, we should ever advance with the assurance of the Pharisee and say like him: I come to the altar of the Lord because I know I am just in His eyes: neither hast Thou permitted that a sacrament of love should become for us a torture and an unavoidable snare. I therefore obey, O my God, and in the darkness that envelops me I wish to follow implicitly the guidance of him whom Thou hast appointed to lead me to Thee. I shall approach the Holy Table without wishing for any other warrant than the words spoken by my confessor, or rather by Thee: You may receive Holy Communion. I accept, O my God! - be it a well merited punishment or a salutary trial - this privation of light and sensible devotion, this coldness and distraction, which accompany me even into Thy presence when all the faculties of my soul should be absorbed and confounded in sentiments of adoration and of love. Faith, hope and charity seem to be extinct in my heart, but I know that Thou never withdraw these virtues when we do not voluntarily renounce them. (continued) ~ Light and Peace, R.P. Quadrupani, Barnabite (1904), written in 1795. Sedes Sapientiæ, ora pro nobis. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion Pious persons can make use of the following prayers with profit when they are habitually or accidentally in the condition described above. They will then see how the will alone, without the aid of feeling, can produce acts of all the christian virtues. (continued)

Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion Pious persons can make use of the following prayers with profit when they are habitually or accidentally in the condition described above. They will then see how the will alone, without the aid of feeling, can produce acts of all the christian virtues. (continued)

St. John reproached Herod for his unlawful union. The adulterous Herodias and her shameless daughter, Salome, asked Herod to behead the Precursor. The Gospel of the Mass describes his martyrdom. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ August 29th~ The BEHEADING of ST. JOHN the BAPTIST MAY the holy feast of Thy Precursor and Martyr, St. John the Baptist, we beseech Thee, O Lord, afford us help unto salvation. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, August 29, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ St. John the Baptist, pray for us.

Sayings of the Saints “Conquer yourself, and the world lies at your feet.” ~ Saint Augustine St. Augustine of Hippo, pray for us.

Final Advice in Regard to Holy Communion When He has granted us this gift we owe Him homage for it as for all others; but God only requires that each of His creatures should render an account of what he has received, and free-will is the one thing that has been accorded indiscriminately to all men. Thus we find Saint Francis de Sales, who possessed in such a high degree sensible love of God and all the natural virtues, making this positive declaration: "The greatest proof we can have in this life that we are in the grace of God, is not sensible love of Him, but the firm resolution never to consent to any sin great or small." (continued) ~ Light and Peace, R.P. Quadrupani, Barnabite (1904), written in 1795. Sedes Sapientiæ, ora pro nobis. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

St. Augustine was born at Tagaste, Africa in 354. Monica, his mother, constantly prayed for his conversion. At thirty-five years of age, St. Augustine finally received baptism. At forty-one, he became Bishop of Hippo. From 5is time until his death, he wrote voluminous works that have been the admiration of the ages. His sublime knowledge merited for him the title of one of the greatest Doctors of the Western Church. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ August 28th ~ Feast of ST. AUGUSTINE, Bishop, Confessor Doctor of the Church GIVE heed, almighty God, and by the intercession of Blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, graciously grant the effect of Thy accustomed mercy to those to whom Thou grantest confidence to hope for forgiveness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, August 28, St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ St. Augustine, pray for us.