Virgo Potens

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 15th [140. continued] The proud man does not take any pleasure in sermons, meditations, instructions concerning eternal truth, in fact they are wearisome to him. If you discover any signs of this in yourself, you must at once conclude that you are proud, and humble yourself a little, O you who read this doctrine, in order that the eternal Father of all light may give you light even as Christ said: “I confess to Thee, O Father, Who hast revealed them to little ones.” [Matt. xi, 25] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 15th The Mystery of the Precious Blood God made the stars; and, whether the earth was made by itself from the first, or was once part of the sun, and thrown off from it like a ring, God made the earth also, and shaped it, and adorned it, and filled it with trees and animals; and then looked upon His work, and it shone forth so beautifully with the light of His own perfections, that He blessed it, and, glorying in it, declared that it was very good. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 14th It is St. Thomas himself who will convince you of this. You can learn truth in two ways, that is by the intellect and by the affections. The proud man does not know it by his intellect, because God hides it from him, as Christ said: “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent”; [Matt. xi, 25] and still less will he know it with his affection, because no one who takes pleasure in vanity can take pleasure in truth. “When the proud delight in their own excellence,” explains St. Augustine, “they recede from the excellence of truth.” [D. Th. 2a 2æ, qu. clxii, art. 3] (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 14th [140. continued] If you sift these worldly expressions, you will find that the quintessence of a most consummate pride issues therefrom. This is indeed the only thing I ask of you, that if you have unfortunately been deceived by others, you will at least not deceive yourselves. Study to know your own ills, if you wish to be cured of them. I recommend you only to apply yourselves to learn the truth and profit by this advice, that if the knowledge of this truth seems difficult to you, it is a sign that you are proud. (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 14th The Mystery of the Precious Blood But the sight of sin was also with God from the beginning, that is, through all His unbeginning eternity; and thus the Precious Blood also, as the ransom for sin, was with Him from the beginning. It was one of His eternal thoughts. If we may dare to say so, it was an idea which made Him more glorious, a thought which rendered Him more blessed. That same dear Blood, the thought of which makes us so happy now, has been part of God's happiness for ever. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

ON SACRIFICE (The Second Apparition of the Angel, 1916) ‘How must we sacrifice?' I asked the Angel. 'Offer God a sacrifice of anything you can as an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and as a supplication for the conversion of sinners. Draw peace upon your country by doing this. I am its guardian angel – the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and endure with submission whatever suffering the Lord sends you.' Then he disappeared. The angel's words were impressed upon our souls like a light that made us understand Who God is, how much He loves us and wishes to be loved, the value of sacrifice and how sacrifice pleases God, and how He converts sinners because of it. ~ Lucia dos Santos

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 13th As humility is generally called weak and contemptible by the blind lovers of this world, so pride is called courage and greatness, and the proud are said to be spirited, dignified, of noble behaviour and good judgment, sustaining their position with honour, maintaining their reputation, keeping up their rank and fulfilling the duties of their state. What a vocabulary of vanity! But let us set against it the vocabulary of truth which was used by Job: “I have said to rottenness, Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.” [Job xvii, 4] (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 13th 140. This last danger is for us the greatest of all, and all the more because we ourselves seem to co-operate so as not to recognize this vice, inventing titles, colours, artifices to conceal its ugliness, and studying innumerable pretexts in order to deceive ourselves into believing that pride is not pride, and does not reign in our heart at the very moment when it is more dominant than ever. (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 13th The Mystery of the Precious Blood This is what we call the mystery of the Incarnation. It is this which makes creation so magnificent. It [creation] was not merely a beautiful thing which God made as an artificer, and which He set outside of Himself, and kept at a distance from Himself to look at, to admire, to pity, and to love. He always intended to be part of it Himself in a very wonderful way. So that there would have been Jesus and Mary, even if there had never been any sin: only Jesus would not have been crucified, and Mary would not have had any dolours. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Words of Our Lady "Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them." ~ Our Lady of Fatima Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

AT FATIMA . . . the principal request of Our Lady was for the sacrifice necessary to fulfillment of daily duty. Fatima’s prescription of sacrifice requires that we accept and offer in reparation for our sins and the sins of the world and the intentions of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all the trials and vexations of our state of life. In this light, daily duty is not without heroism. It is heroic in its devotion to Our Lady and makes our lives a living rosary. ~ Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 12th (6) Because pride is the characteristic and most significant sign of the reprobate, as St. Gregory says: “Pride is the most manifest sign of the lost.” [Lib. 34. Mor. cxviii] (7) Because the other vices are easily recognizable, and therefore it is easy to hate them and to amend; but pride is a vice that is not so easily known because it goes masked and disguised in many forms, even putting on the semblance of virtue and the very appearance of humility; thus being a hidden vice it is less easy to escape from it, as is taught in the maxim of St. Ambrose: [Epist. 82] “Hidden things are more difficult to avoid than things known.” ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 12th [139. continued. Let us now consider wherein lies the terrible danger of this vice.] (5) Because as we have need of some special grace of God in order to enable us to do any of those good works that pertain to our eternal salvation, so there is no vice which prevents the influx of grace so much as pride; because “God resists the proud.” [James iv, 6] (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 12th The Mystery of the Precious Blood [T]here is a sense in which creation was eternal. It was eternally in the mind of God. It was one of His eternal ideas, always before Him; so that He never existed without this idea of creation in His all-wise mind and in His all-powerful intention. Moreover it was always part of His intention that the Creator should become as it were part of His own creation, and that an Uncreated Person should really and truly assume a created nature and be born of a created mother. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

AT FATIMA . . . the principal request of Our Lady was for the sacrifice necessary to fulfillment of daily duty. On close observation, heroic acts and sacrifices are quite often done-and-over-with in an instant. Conversely, in faithful fulfillment of daily duty, there is too much time to experience the temptation to weaken, to rationalize and to anticipate, which is the scourge of fortitude. Grace has to be purchased often with dry prayer in which you sometimes feel that God and Our Lady are far away. ~ Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 11th (4) Because if the other vices are of quick growth, we can also rid ourselves of them quickly; but pride is the first vice we learn, and it is also the last to leave us as St. Augustine says: [Enarr. 2 in Ps. cxviii] “For those who are returning to God, pride is the last thing to be overcome, as it was the first cause of their leaving God. (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 11th [139. continued. Let us now consider wherein lies the terrible danger of this vice.] (3) Because after having fought against and overcome the other vices we may justly rejoice, but as soon as we begin to rejoice that we have triumphed over pride it triumphs over us, and becomes victorious over us in that very act for which we are praising ourselves for conquering it. St. Augustine says: “When a man rejoices that he has overcome pride, he lifts up his head for very joy and says: Behold, I triumph thus because thou triumphest.” [Aug., Lib. de Nat. et Gr. cap. xxvii] (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 11th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Salvation is through the Precious Blood. We will take that for our study of Jesus this time. When love is humble, it prays with David to be washed more and more from its iniquity. But there is no washing away of iniquity, except in the Precious Blood of our most dear Redeemer. When love is bold, it prays to be set on fire with the flames which Jesus came to kindle. But it is only the Precious Blood which makes our heart beat hotly with the love of Him. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

AT FATIMA . . . the principal request of Our Lady was for the sacrifice necessary to fulfillment of daily duty. This mission is THE FAITHFUL FULFILLMENT OF DAILY DUTY AS REQUIRED BY OUR STATE IN LIFE. . . If the faithful fulfillment of it can untie the knot of evil strangling the world; would it not be reasonable to say that man’s abandonment of daily duty was, in the last analysis, the cause of his drift from God, since this drift is always preceded by apathy which in turn is preceded by abandonment of daily duty? In this light daily duty is not mundane. It is profound. ~ Fatima and the “Way of Divine Love” (Pamphlet)