Virgo Potens

June 24th ~ Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist The Church, throughout her entire Liturgy, commemorates three births: that of Jesus, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that of St. John the Baptist. St. John has this singular honor because he was sanctified in his mother’s womb by the presence of Jesus, and leapt with joy at the coming of the Savior. Grant we beseech Thee, almighty God, that Thy household may advance in the way of salvation, and by following the exhortation of Blessed John, the precursor, may safely come to Him whom he foretold, even our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Who with Thee liveth and reignith in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. (Collect, June 23, Vigil of St. John the Baptist) ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal (1956)

2 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) (continued from above) O Thou, who during all the days of Thy mortal life consoled so many sufferings, healed so many infirmities, raised so often a sinking courage; Thou wilt not fail to have pity on a soul who cries to Thee from the depths of her anguish! Oh, no, it is impossible! Another sigh from my heart, and from the wound in Thine own, there will flow to me, upon a wave of Thy merciful Blood, the grace so ardently desired. O Jesus, Jesus! hasten the moment when Thou wilt change my tears into joy, my sighs into thanksgivings. Holy Mary, Source of the Divine Blood! I conjure Thee not to lose this occasion of glorifying the Blood which made Thee Immaculate. Amen.

1 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) By the Voice of Thy Blood, O Jesus! I would press Thee, solicit Thee, importune Thee, though Thou seemest to reject my supplications. I will not leave Thy bleeding feet until Thou hearest me. Too many graces, too many mercies have come from Thy Blood, for me not to hope, even to the end, in its efficacy. Then, O Jesus! by the Precious Blood seven times shed for the welfare of men, by each drop of that Sacred Price of our redemption, by the tears of Thine Immaculate Mother, I conjure Thee, I supplicate Thee, hear my earnest prayer. (Mention your intentions here) (continued)

‘I ardently thirst to be loved by men; but scarcely do I find any who endeavour to quench My thirst by showing Me any return of love.’ [Words of Our Saviour to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 24th [Prayer of St. Mechtilde to the Sacred Heart (1)] Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for this ineffable joy, felt by Thee in Thy blessed Humanity, when Thy Father gave it divine glorification at Thy resurrection and conferred on all the elect the eternal glorification of His divinity. By this ineffable joy I beg of Thee, O loving Mediator between God and man, to keep for me in its integrity, by Thy grace, this glory which Thou then gavest me, so that I may meet it again at the day of Judgment. Amen. ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

✧❁❁✧✿❤️✿✧❁❁✧ 1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 24th CHAPTER XII PRAISE AND SUPPLICATION—THE FIVE JOYS OF THE HEART OF JESUS IN HIS RESURRECTION As the Sacred Heart has promised to reward those who should honour the joys of His resurrection, why should we not try to deserve those rewards ? His devoted servant, Mechtilde, has drawn up a magnificent prayer in honour of His joys. Let us say it with her, especially during the Paschal octave: ✧❁❁✧✿❤️✿✧❁❁✧ (continued below)

2 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) (continued from above) O Thou, who during all the days of Thy mortal life consoled so many sufferings, healed so many infirmities, raised so often a sinking courage; Thou wilt not fail to have pity on a soul who cries to Thee from the depths of her anguish! Oh, no, it is impossible! Another sigh from my heart, and from the wound in Thine own, there will flow to me, upon a wave of Thy merciful Blood, the grace so ardently desired. O Jesus, Jesus! hasten the moment when Thou wilt change my tears into joy, my sighs into thanksgivings. Holy Mary, Source of the Divine Blood! I conjure Thee not to lose this occasion of glorifying the Blood which made Thee Immaculate. Amen.

1 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) By the Voice of Thy Blood, O Jesus! I would press Thee, solicit Thee, importune Thee, though Thou seemest to reject my supplications. I will not leave Thy bleeding feet until Thou hearest me. Too many graces, too many mercies have come from Thy Blood, for me not to hope, even to the end, in its efficacy. Then, O Jesus! by the Precious Blood seven times shed for the welfare of men, by each drop of that Sacred Price of our redemption, by the tears of Thine Immaculate Mother, I conjure Thee, I supplicate Thee, hear my earnest prayer. (Mention your intentions here) (continued)

The loving Heart of Jesus, she [St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] says, is filled with an infinite longing to be known and loved by His creatures, in whom He wishes to establish His kingdom, the source of all blessings, and to provide for all their wants. . . . Jesus thirsts to be loved; all is condensed into this celebrated expression of St. Augustine. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 23rd [“]He saw, in that instant, what the Saints see and shall see by Him, and He concentrated in one very pure and perfect act of love what the Saints shall for ever possess as the development and expression of the mysteries of His life. Then, truly, arose in His Heart what God has prepared for His Saints—glory and joy, ecstasies and the delights abounding in the hearts of Angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles and the just of all times. Jesus possessed all these concentrated in all their fulness in His Heart. “Oh, blessedness of heart! never was any heart more worthy of possessing it ! Jesus, Lord and God of heaven and earth, we praise Thee, we bless Thee, we give Thee thanks for having revealed Thy glory, for having clothed Thyself with Thy divine attributes and for having at length ascended that throne which Thou hadst seemed to have abandoned ! When Jesus shall appear to me in the glory of His resurrection, I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is, and my heart shall then be in His Heart, inundated with His joys, which shall be mine.” (Mgr. Baudry, 256-268.) ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

Voici que je viens régner sur vos âmes par mon divin Cœur. N.S. à la Ble. Margte M Behold, I come to reign over your souls through my divine heart. Our Lord to Blessed Margaret Mary 1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 23rd [Continued from yesterday, written by Msgr. Baudry in the 19th century.] “O Heart, how pure and how holy thou art at this time! May I dare to fix my gaze on thee ?—I, alas, who languish and die in my sins. The Heart of Jesus, always holy, always united to God, always rejoicing in the vision of His face, receives now an increase of beatitude after which He had long sighed. But, independently of what He felt Himself, and of what He enjoyed as the personal reward of His merits, He felt then all the happiness which is experienced by the hearts of the elect when they first come in contact with the divine Essence in the light of glory. (continued below)

2 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) (continued from above) O Thou, who during all the days of Thy mortal life consoled so many sufferings, healed so many infirmities, raised so often a sinking courage; Thou wilt not fail to have pity on a soul who cries to Thee from the depths of her anguish! Oh, no, it is impossible! Another sigh from my heart, and from the wound in Thine own, there will flow to me, upon a wave of Thy merciful Blood, the grace so ardently desired. O Jesus, Jesus! hasten the moment when Thou wilt change my tears into joy, my sighs into thanksgivings. Holy Mary, Source of the Divine Blood! I conjure Thee not to lose this occasion of glorifying the Blood which made Thee Immaculate. Amen.

1 of 2 NOVENA to the PRECIOUS BLOOD (June 22-30) By the Voice of Thy Blood, O Jesus! I would press Thee, solicit Thee, importune Thee, though Thou seemest to reject my supplications. I will not leave Thy bleeding feet until Thou hearest me. Too many graces, too many mercies have come from Thy Blood, for me not to hope, even to the end, in its efficacy. Then, O Jesus! by the Precious Blood seven times shed for the welfare of men, by each drop of that Sacred Price of our redemption, by the tears of Thine Immaculate Mother, I conjure Thee, I supplicate Thee, hear my earnest prayer. (Mention your intentions here) (continued)

‘O Jesus, Jesus,’ exclaims St. Bernard . . . ‘Thou hast said to Thine Apostles, and through them to us: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” I conjure Thee, good Jesus, my beloved and most dear Jesus, to tell me the reason, the cause, of so much love, and why Thou commandest us to love Thee and to dwell in Thy love? Tell me, so that those who love Thee not may hear it and may begin to love Thee; that those who have begun to love Thee may be consumed by a greater love of Thee!’ ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 22nd “To-day while giving Himself to God His Father, and to His Church, Jesus takes possession of His Kingdom. He is established king over Sion, His holy mountain (Ps. ii. 6), and His reign is the reign of the light of truth, which He spreads through the world, and by which He subdues it. From His Heart, whence it originated and where it is retained, this divine light spreads, glorifying His body, and, with it, His Church. “And for so, for Jesus Himself, He must reign. He made Himself servant to His Father; He delivered to Him the kingdom He had conquered and the Father established Him King. He had served souls in redeeming them, and He gave Himself to them, and they gave themselves to Him, acknowledging Him as their only Chief. Truth is His kingdom, and truth is His love, which sanctifies the world and becomes for ever its law. “And such to-day is the part played by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It grows and spreads in itself, but it also grows in the Church to which it communicates its life, its holiness and its glory. “Ah, what zeal fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus ! What charity consumes it ! And yet it is always in peace and accomplishes, with a calm joy, the sublime devotedness of His life. Hitherto, His Heart only saw in God an irritated Judge, now it finds in Him a Father, full of kindness. He saw humanity far from God, covered by its sins, buried in death; now it rises with Him from the tomb. He clothes Himself with our human nature as with a mantle of glory, in order to appear a holy and eternal High Priest, before His Father. His Heart feels the life which abounds. He allows it to overflow and spread abroad; this divine Heart expands; He lives, who was dead; He triumphs, who was vanquished; He superabounds in joy, who was plunged in sadness, weariness and fear. O Jesus, what happy moments ! O night, what mysteries ! Happy Angels who behold all this, when He renewed the living interchange of graces between heaven and earth, when the soul, violently separated from the body by death, was happily reunited to it by a secret dispensation, after it had received the much-desired baptism of death. Holy Angels who witnessed all this—I unite myself to your adoration, to your love; I adore and love with you. (Mgr. Baudry, 256-268.) ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 22nd “To-day while giving Himself to God His Father, and to His Church, Jesus takes possession of His Kingdom. He is established king over Sion, His holy mountain (Ps. ii. 6), and His reign is the reign of the light of truth, which He spreads through the world, and by which He subdues it. From His Heart, whence it originated and where it is retained, this divine light spreads, glorifying His body, and, with it, His Church. “And for so, for Jesus Himself, He must reign. He made Himself servant to His Father; He delivered to Him the kingdom He had conquered and the Father established Him King. He had served souls in redeeming them, and He gave Himself to them, and they gave themselves to Him, acknowledging Him as their only Chief. Truth is His kingdom, and truth is His love, which sanctifies the world and becomes for ever its law. “And such to-day is the part played by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It grows and spreads in itself, but it also grows in the Church to which it communicates its life, its holiness and its glory. “Ah, what zeal fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus ! What charity consumes it ! And yet it is always in peace and accomplishes, with a calm joy, the sublime devotedness of His life. Hitherto, His Heart only saw in God an irritated Judge, now it finds in Him a Father, full of kindness. He saw humanity far from God, covered by its sins, buried in death; now it rises with Him from the tomb. He clothes Himself with our human nature as with a mantle of glory, in order to appear a holy and eternal High Priest, before His Father. His Heart feels the life which abounds. He allows it to overflow and spread abroad; this divine Heart expands; He lives, who was dead; He triumphs, who was vanquished; He super- abounds in joy, who was plunged in sadness, weariness and fear. O Jesus, what happy moments ! O night, what mysteries ! Happy Angels who behold all this, when He renewed the living interchange of graces between heaven and earth, when the soul, violently separated from the body by death, was happily reunited to it by a secret dispensation, after it had received the much-desired baptism of death. Holy Angels who witnessed all this—I unite myself to your adoration, to your love; I adore and love with you. (Mgr. Baudry, 256-268.) ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 22nd “To everyone who shall remind Me of these joys, for the first, provided he desires it before death, I will give him a foretaste of My divinity. For the second, I will give him the gift of knowledge. For the third, I will offer his soul to My Father at the hour of his death. For the fourth, I will share with him My labours and the fruit of all My sufferings, and for the fifth, I will associate him in the happiness of the Saints.” It will be instructive to compare this revelation made to St. Mechtilde in the thirteenth century with a page written in the nineteenth by a learned and pious bishop on the mysteries of the Heart of Jesus: (continued below)

The source of graces The love of Jesus, he [St. Bernard] says, is full of sweetness and charms. The heart is not tormented by it, but filled with delights; it is not weakened, but fortified; this love makes it despise all earthly things, and long only for heaven. He delights only in the law of His God, and is always faithful in performing His sacred precept . . . ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)