Virgo Potens

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 25th It means above all to honor the great love and ardent charity of this Mother of Fair Love toward God and men, together with the effects which that love and charity produced in her thoughts, words, prayers, actions, sufferings, and in the exercise of every virtue. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 24th This admirable Heart it is, which receives our respect and praise, which must be esteemed an object of veneration for all Christians, for to honor Mary’s marvellous Heart means to honor countless holy and divine mysteries deserving of the eternal veneration of angels and men. It also means to honor all the functions of the corporeal and material life of the Queen of Heaven, of which the Heart is the principle, that life superlatively holy in itself and in every use she made of it. It means honoring the perfect functions of her memory, her will, her intellect, and the highest part of her spirit. It means honoring innumerable great and ineffable mysteries which were perfected in the superior part of her soul. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 23rd The memory, intellect and will of Jesus are alive in the memory, intellect and will of Mary; his interior and exterior senses in her interior and exterior senses. His passions in her passions; His virtues, mysteries and divine attributes are living in her Heart. Nay, more than living, they hold sovereign sway, producing inconceivably marvellous effects and impressing a living image of themselves as her Heart mirrors His Sacred Heart. So it is that Jesus is the principle of life in His most holy Mother. So it is that He is the Heart of her Heart and the life of her life. St. Brigid once heard her say: “Every homage rendered to my Son is likewise rendered to me, and who dishonors Him dishonors me. We have always had such perfect mutual love that we seemed to have as it were but one Heart for both. Quasi cor unum ambo fuimus.” ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

A PRAYER O Heart of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother; Heart most worthy of love, in which the adorable Trinity is ever well-pleased, worthy of the veneration and love of all the Angels and of all men; Heart most like to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of which thou art the perfect image; Heart, full of goodness, ever compassionate toward our miseries; deign to melt our icy hearts and grant that they may be wholly changed into the likeness of the Heart of Jesus, our divine Saviour. Pour into them the love of thy virtues, enkindle in them that divine fire with which thou thyself dost ever burn. In thee let holy Church find a safe shelter; protect her and be her dearest refuge, her tower of strength, impregnable against every assault of her enemies. Be thou the way which leads to Jesus, and the channel, through which we receive all the graces needful for our salvation. Be our refuge in time of trouble, our solace in the midst of trial, our strength against temptation, our haven in persecution, our present help in every danger, and especially in the hour of death, when all hell shall let loose against us its legions to snatch away our souls, at that dread moment, that hour so full of fear, whereon our eternity depends. Ah, then, most tender Virgin, make us to feel the sweetness of thy motherly heart and the might of thine intercession with Jesus, and open to us a safe refuge in that very fountain of mercy, whence we may come to praise Him with thee in paradise, world without end. Amen. An indulgence of 500 days. A plenary indulgence on the usual terms, provided that this prayer be devoutly recited every day for a month (S. C. Ind., Aug. 18, 1807 and Feb. 1, 1816; S.P. Ap., Sept. 15, 1934). (The Raccolta, 1943)

August 22nd ~ The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Traditional (1944 - 1969)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 22nd You see, therefore, how the Son of God is the Heart and life of His holy Mother, in the most perfect union conceivable. The Holy Ghost, speaking by St. Paul, proclaims that our adorable Saviour must so live in all His servants that His life be manifested in their bodies. “That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Who could consequently understand with what abundance and perfection Our Lord communicates His divine life to her from whom He received a divinely human and a humanly divine life because she conceived and begot the God-Man? Jesus lives in her soul and in her body, and in each faculty of her body and soul. He lives in her entirely, which means that whatever is in Jesus is also in Mary. His Heart abides in her heart, His soul in her soul, His spirit in her spirit. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 21st Let us listen to what Our Lady revealed to St. Brigid: “My Son was truly my Heart to me. When He left my bosom to be born, it seemed as though half of my Heart were going forth from me. When He suffered, I felt His pain as though my Heart endured the identical sorrows and torments that He endured. When my Son was being scourged and torn with whips, my Heart was scourged and whipped with Him. When He looked at me from the Cross, and I at Him, two streams of tears gushed from my eyes; and when He saw me oppressed with sorrow, He experienced such violent anguish at my desolation that the pain caused by His sorrow was my sorrow as His Heart was my Heart. Because Adam and Eve together betrayed the world for one, single forbidden fruit, so did my beloved Son wish that I should cooperate with Him in redeeming it with one Heart, quasi cum uno Corde.” ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 20th The Divine Heart of Mary ~ Jesus Christ, the Heart of the Eternal Father, is the Heart of His Holy Mother. Is not the heart the principle of life? And what is the Son of God to His dear Mother? He always was and will be forever the heart of her heart, the soul of her soul, the spirit of her spirit, and the sole principle of all the movements, uses and functions of her most holy life. St. Paul tells us that it is not himself who lives but Jesus Christ who lives in him? Our Lord is the life of all Christians: so who could doubt that He abides in His holy Mother, and that He is the life of her life, the heart of her heart, in a union incomparably more excellent even than with St. Paul and the other faithful saints? ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

August 19th ~ The Feast of St. John Eudes, Confessor (1601 - 1680) O God, Who, to rightly promote worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, hast wonderfully inflamed Blessed John Thy confessor, and through him hast willed to assemble new families in Thy Church; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may both venerate his pious merits and be edified by the examples of his virtues. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Collect, August 19, St. John Eudes, Confessor ~ The New Roman Missal, 1937 St. John Eudes, pray for us.

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 19th What shall we now say of the twofold love that inflamed her heart, her love for God and incomparable charity for men? It was by the force of love and humility that Mary attracted the well-beloved Son of God, the Heart of the Eternal Father, to be the Heart of her heart. The love of Mary’s most blessed heart makes it an inexhaustible source of gifts, favors and blessings for all those who truly love their Mother most amiable, and honor with affection her most lovable heart, accordng to the words the Holy Ghost puts on her lips: “I love them that love me.” Finally, it is this heart which has loved and glorified God above all the hearts of angels and men, and therefore, can never be revered adequately. What honor is due to such great and admirable wonders! ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

August 18th ~ The Feast of St. Helena, Empress, Widow (c. 248 - c. 328) Patron saint of new discoveries. Finder of the True Cross as well as the nails of the Crucifixion. O Lord Jesus Christ, Who unto blessed Helena didst reveal the place where Thy Cross lay hid: thus choosing her as the means to enrich Thy Church with that precious treasure: do Thou at her intercession, grant that by the price of the Tree of Life, we may attain the rewards of everlasting life. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, August 18, St. Helena, Empress, Widow ~ The New Roman Missal, 1937 We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee, because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world. St. Helena, pray for us.

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 18th Moreover, Our Lady never experienced undue pleasure in the lights that God imparted to her, never became attached to these favors, never preferred herself to other beings on account of them, but always returned them to God as pure as they sprang from their source. Such was the knowledge of the Admirable Heart of Mary. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 17th . . . [T]he luminous heart of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, was so filled with its radiance that the learned Albert the Great, nurtured in the school of the Mother of God, plainly teaches, together with many other holy Doctors, that there was nothing Our Lady did not know. They assert that she possessed infused knowledge of every science, and in a much more eminent degree than the most learned minds that ever existed. The vast knowledge of the Blessed Virgin Mary was dedicated to a most holy use, employed only to urge her to love God with greater ardor, to procure the salvation of souls with greater fervor, to hate sin more vigorously, to humble herself more profoundly, to despise still further everything that the world esteems and to prize and embrace with greater affection the things it detests, namely poverty, abjections and suffering. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

August 16th ~ ST. JOACHIM, Confessor ~ Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary Traditional Feast Day God rewarded St Joachim for his faith and piety by giving him St. Anne for his spouse, and the Blessed Virgin Mary for his daughter. O God, Who of all Thy saints didst will Blessed Joachim to be father to the Mother of Thy Son, grant, we beseech Thee, that we, who venerate his feast, may evermore experience his patronage. 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 16, St. Joachim, Confessor ~ Saint Joseph Daily Missal, 1951

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 16th . . . [T]he Father of Light has filled this beautiful Sun with the most brilliant lights of nature and of grace. If we consider the natural illumination shining within Mary, we see that God gave to the chosen Spouse of the Holy Ghost a natural intellect more clear, lively, profound, vaster and more perfect in every way than any other intellect, an intellect worthy of the Mother of God, worthy of the woman destined to guide and rule Divine Wisdom, worthy of the Mistress of the Church and Queen Regent of the universe, worthy of her who was to converse familiarly on earth with the angels of heaven, and what is more, with the King of Angels, for thirty-four years, an intellect worthy of the lofty functions and sublime contemplation to which she was consecrated. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 15th . . . Divine Bounty miraculously preserved the heart of the Mother of Our Saviour from the stain of sin, which never touched it because God filled it with grace from the moment of its creation, and clothed it with purity so radiant that, next to God’s, it is impossible to conceive of greater purity. His Divine Majesty possessed her heart so completely from its first instant that it never ceased for a moment to belong entirely to Him and to love Him more ardently than all the holiest hearts of heaven and earth united. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Novena for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Thou hast destroyed the power of death and given the hope of eternal life for body and soul. Thou hast granted Thy Mother a special place in Thy glory, and didst not allow decay to touch her body. As we rejoice in the Assumption of Mary, grant us renewed confidence in the victory of life over death. Amen. DAY 9 - August 14th O Blessed Mother Assumed into Heaven, after years of heroic martyrdom on earth, we rejoice that you have at last been taken to the throne prepared for you in Heaven by the Holy Trinity. Lift our hearts with you in the glory of your Assumption above the dreadful touch of sin and impurity. Teach us how small earth becomes when viewed from heaven. Make us realize that death is the triumphant gate through which we shall pass to your Son and that someday our bodies shall rejoin our souls in the unending bliss of heaven. From this earth, which we tread as pilgrims, we look to you for help. In honor of your Assumption into Heaven, we ask for this favor (Here mention your request). At the hour of our death, lead us safely to the presence of Jesus to enjoy the vision of God for all eternity together with you. Pray for us, O Queen assumed into heaven. Pray for us, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 14th . . . [T]he spiritual heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the intellectual element of her soul, comprising her memory, intelligence, will and the supreme point of her spirit. This is the heart which expresses itself in the first words of her admirable Canticle, the Magnificat: “My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” It is the spirit, the soul’s first and noblest part, which must, in a very special manner, glorify God and rejoice in Him. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Christian remember that thou hast today virtues to ask for. Sacrifice Do you extend your MORNING OFFERING throughout the day? Indulgences FOR DAILY WORK A partial indulgence is granted to 1) That individual among the faithful who, in carrying out his duties and bearing with the trials of life, raises his mind in humble trust to God, adding — even mentally —some pious invocation; 2) That individual among the faithful who, led by a spirit of faith, mercifully expends himself or his goods in the service of needy brethren; 3) That individual among the faithful who, in a spirit of penance, freely abstains from something licit and pleasing to himself. Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 1968 As found in the pamphlet Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love”