Virgo Potens

2 of 2 Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 23rd This is of faith. “No man can say the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Ghost.” [1 Cor. xii, 3] “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” [2 Cor. iii, 5] “For it is God Who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good will.” [Phil. ii, 13] It is not enough only to say I know all these things, but it is necessary to realize them to become really humble. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

2 of 2 This is of faith. “No man can say the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Ghost.” [1 Cor. xii, 3] “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” [2 Cor. iii, 5] “For it is God Who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good will.” [Phil. ii, 13] It is not enough only to say I know all these things, but it is necessary to realize them to become really humble. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 24th Examen on Humility Towards God [101.] THE first act of humility, says St. Thomas, [2a 2æ, qu. clxi, art. 2 ad 3 ; et qu. clxii, art. 5] consists in rendering ourselves entirely subject to God with the greatest reverence for His infinite Majesty, before which we are as nothing: “All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all.” [Isai. vl, 17] But do you ever consider your nothingness before God?–—and that all the being you have, you have from God?–—and that through intrinsic necessity you depend so entirely upon God that without Him you cannot do anything good–—“for without Me you can do nothing” [John xv, 5] –—that without God you neither think nor say nor do anything that is good? (continued)

2 of 2 ~ 11.— Whit-sunday 2. The Holy Spirit came like a mighty wind, but yet perceived by each and all. Unsearchable like the wind in no one being able to trace whence He comes and whither He goes, sweeping away all the miasmas of earth, purifying, refreshing, invigorating. Has He produced these effects in my soul? Have I asked Him to make me more pure and courageous and strong? Have I co-operated with His grace, or have I hindered His holy influences? 3. The Holy Spirit in coming filled the whole house where they had met together. So His presence extends to the whole Church. He speaks first through the Vicar of Christ, then through bishops and priests, and in subordination to their authority, to the individual soul. It is this universal gift that makes the Church of Christ no mere collection of individuals, but the living body of Christ, her divine Spouse. Thank God for the happiness of being a member of it. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS May 24th, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 11.— Whit-sunday The Descent of the Holy Ghost 1. At length the retreat of the apostles was over, and they all assembled together to receive the gift that Our Lord had promised to send them after His departure from them. He had promised to ask the Eternal Father to send the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, in His name, to remain with them forever. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity was to come in His seven fold power, to dwell in the Church of God, and in the hearts of all its faithful members. What a wondrous gift! What a proof of the love of Jesus! He gave the best gift that heaven itself had to bestow. He gave them the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Son. (continued)

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost : Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of God. Blessed Feast of Pentecost! May the Holy Ghost shower you with His gifts and may He dwell eternally in your soul.

2 of 2 Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 23rd You must be solicitous in your wish and desire to acquire humility, and you should have diligence and care not to omit those means which would lead you to gain it, and then recommending yourself to God continue to make this examen according to the inspiration of God and the dictates of your own conscience. As humility may be considered under three different aspects, in relation to God, our neighbour and ourselves, and practiced in two ways, that is to say interiorly and exteriorly, it therefore follows that we can sin in these several ways, as we sin against the laws of any other virtue, either by our thoughts, words, deeds or omissions. Let us therefore proceed now to the examen of our faults. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 23rd Practical Examen on the Virtue of Humility (continued) Many things considered in themselves are only of counsel; but in respect to such and such circumstances they can nevertheless be of obligation, and are necessary also so that we may not transgress the precept, according to the teaching of St. Thomas. [2a 2æ, qu. lxxii, art. 3; et qu. clxxxvi, art. 2] In conclusion, you must not make this examen with scruples or much anxiety, as if every imperfection were a sin and as if you had the presumption to will to be humble all at once, nor must you reject with contempt all that does not seem to you positively of precept. (continued)

2 of 2 ~ 10.— Saturday before Pentecost 2. The gift of fear produces an intense quickness of perception in the soul, so that we see our smallest faults, and lament over them. It makes us dread any approach to sin, anything that could leave the faintest stain upon the soul. It also produces a great fear of any unfaithfulness to grace in matters where there is no question of sin. Why have I so little of this gift? It is because my love is so faint and feeble. Why am I so blind to my faults? It is because I am so careless in guarding against them. 3. The fear of the Lord, says the Wise Man, is the beginning of wisdom, and from the very first those whom Our Lord chose to be His apostles and disciples had this fear already existing in their hearts. They had a reverential dread of the judgments of God. They had a fear of the wrath to come. But this preliminary fear was very different from the fully-developed gift they needed in order to be apostles of Christ to the world. We, too, if we are to be apostles ofChrist to others, must have this gift of loving fear. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS May 23rd, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 10.— Saturday before Pentecost VII.—The Gift of the Fear of the Lord 1. The gift of fear includes not only that fear which is the beginning of wisdom, but a fear which is the completion and perfection of wisdom. It gives to him who receives it a continual dread of any kind of offence against God, even of sins committed thoughtlessly and without full deliberation. It is not a slavish, cowardly, frightened fear, but a loving, reverential, affectionate fear, founded on intense love. It is joined to perfect confidence in God, and flows from a joyful acknowledgment of His complete dominion. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 22nd You will find many little points in this examen, but if you find yourself defective in many of them, you must not regard them from the point of view of their size but of their number, and the more you find that they are habitual with you the more they should fill you with fear and apprehension. And in proportion as you find that you are not humble in this point or that, you will be able to infer that you are proud; and if this examen on humility only teaches you to know your own pride it will not be a small gain, because we begin to be humble when we open our eyes and recognize that we are proud. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 22nd The third is that you should often read this practical examen, in order to reflect seriously upon yourself and to see how you stand in regard to humility, so that you may not be of those who think they are humble and are not really so. St. Thomas says that it is for humility to examine the faults committed against any virtue whatsoever. How much more, therefore, should it examine those faults which are committed against this very humility! (continued)

2 of 2 ~ 9.— Friday after the Ascension 2. The gift of fortitude makes easy what would otherwise be difficult or impossible. It helps men to bear with fortitude sufferings otherwise unendurable. It makes feeble women endure torture with joy. It makes those naturally weak strong against all the assaults of Satan; it renders self-denial and self-sacrifice attractive. It sweetens suffering, and makes us content under pain and trouble. O heavenly gift! Grant it to me, O Christ my Lord! 3. The disciples of Our Lord exhibited during His life a curious mixture of courage and cowardice. St. Peter had great natural courage; so had St. John, who alone followed Our Lord throughout His sacred Passion. St. Joseph of Arimathaea and St. Nicodemus in their burial of Him were bold and generous. But on the other hand, there had been at the time of His Passion sad weakness. All had deserted Him in the garden when He was arrested. St. Peter had denied Him; the rest had hidden themselves in fear. Human courage can do little in the face of fierce temptation or sudden alarm. Perhaps I know this by my own experience. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS May 22nd, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 9.— Friday after the Ascension VI.—The Gift of Fortitude 1. The gift of fortitude in some degree is absolutely necessary to one who wants to save his soul. All Christians are called upon sometimes to endure for religion sufferings for which mere human courage will not suffice. Those who desire a high place in heaven are called to a hard struggle, and one quite impossible to us in our own strength. Any one may be called on to die for his faith; most are exposed on some occasion in their lives to ridicule, loss of friends, or contempt. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 21st When it is a question of humility, which is the most necessary virtue for our eternal salvation, it is always better and safer to have too much of it than to have too little. And it is certain that he who is content to have only that amount which is absolutely essential to him will never really acquire that virtue. “Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven,” said the Saviour of the world, and we have no other way of becoming as little children than to eliminate our self-love by the vigorous exercise of humility. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 21st Practical Examen on the Virtue of Humility (continued) The second is to take these faults which form the subject of our examen, and to accuse ourselves of them in our confessions, in order to make us still more ashamed of our pride before God, and also because the Sacrament of Penance confers a singular grace of its own in helping us to amend those faults of which we therein accuse ourselves, as St. Thomas teaches. [P. 3. qu. lxxxiv, art. 8 ad 1] And although none of these defects can absolutely be called sins, and are simply imperfections, it does not follow that we must not pay any heed to them, because they either serve to keep us in vice or are an impediment to virtue. (continued)

2 of 2 ~ 8.— Thursday after the Ascension 2. This spirit of loyalty which we thus receive from the Holy Spirit is one of the most powerful, exalted, all-embracing of motives. It puts us on our mettle, and engenders a chivalrous spirit of generous obedience. It is the true application of the proverb Noblesse oblige. If I am a son of God, loyal to my Father in heaven, how this thought should influence my every act and word and thought! 3. From the first moment that Our Lord called the apostles to follow Him, they had continually entertained a loyal and intense devotion to Him. They had also had the virtue of piety, by reason of which they loved God as their sovereign Lord. But neither of these was the gift of piety. The first was a personal affection to Our Lord in His sacred humanity; the second was a love for God founded upon the law, not upon the Gospel. The disciples of Our Lord had never fully realized the new obligation of filial affection that was the result of Our Lord's Incarnation, till after His Ascension. God had become their Father in a new sense, and the prayer they were taught by their Master insisted on this first of all. Do I at all realize it? ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS May 21st, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 8.— Thursday after the Ascension V.—The Gift of Piety 1. The gift of piety implants in the soul a loyal, tender, filial affection towards God as our Father. "You have received," says St. Paul (Rom. viii. 15), "the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father)." This loyalty makes us forget self; it loves to serve God, not as a master, or even as a benefactor, but because it is a joy to us to obey our Father in heaven. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 20th It was thus that holy King David made resolutions and renewed them, not trying to keep them from year to year, nor from month to month, but from day to day: “I will pay my vows from day to day.” [Ps. lx, 9] And in order to keep them one cannot sufficiently urge the necessity of imposing upon oneself some penance and of accomplishing it faithfully. For example, as many times as I have failed to keep my resolutions today, so many times will I kiss the Wound in the side of Christ, and recite devoutly as many Hail Marys, etc.” (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

“I will pay my vows from day to day.” [Ps. lx, 9] Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ May 20th Practical Examen on the Virtue of Humility (continued) This is also the manner in which we ought to meditate. Certain general resolutions, such as to subdue pride and to practice humility, are never of any use; but, on the contrary, they frequently generate confusion and create conflict in the mind: therefore it is necessary to go into particulars of those things in which during the day we have been most sensible of our imperfections, and even then we must not form a general intention not to fall into them again all our life through, but it is enough that we should make a firm resolution not to fall into them again during that one day. (continued)