Virgo Potens

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 22nd [142. continued] This is a point which is worthy of all attention so that we may not fall through inadvertence into most terrible pride. And St. Augustine urges us to remember that not only all the good we have comes from God, but also that we have it only through His mercy and not through our own merits. “When a man sees that whatever good he has is from the mercy of God and not from his own merits, he ceases to be proud.” [In Ps. lxxxiv] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 22nd The Mystery of the Precious Blood This is the shape, then, which our Father's love takes to us His creatures. It is an invitation of all of us to the worship and the freedom of the Precious Blood. It is through this Blood that He communicates to us His perfections. It is in this Blood that He has laid up His blessings for us, as in a storehouse. This is true, not only of spiritual blessings, but of all blessings whatsoever. That the elements still wait upon us sinners, that things around us are so bright and beautiful, that pain has so many balms, that sorrow has so many alleviations, that the common course of daily providence is so kindly and so patient, that the weight, the frequency, and the bitterness of evils are so much lightened,—Is all owing to the Precious Blood. ~ 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 21st And anyone who ascribes what he is or what he has to his own merits, is guilty of pride, and appropriates to himself what he ought to give to the mercy and grace of God. Therefore holy Church wisely ends her prayers with these words: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord,” etc. And by this we protest to the Divine Majesty that we ask the gifts mentioned in those prayers through the merits of Jesus Christ, and that, if our prayers are heard, it will only be through the merits of Jesus Christ. (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 21st [142. continued] And each one of us should say with the same humble St. Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” [1 Cor. xv, 10] If I am rich, noble, sane, or possess any other gifts, it all comes from God who has made me thus, not because of my own merits, but solely through His Own mercy and goodness. Whether I abstain from evil or whether I do good, I owe it all not to my own merit, but to the grace of God Who assists me with His mercy; “By the grace of God I am what I am.” (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 21st The Mystery of the Precious Blood God does not see us as we see ourselves, but in a brighter, softer light. We are fairer in His sight than we are in our own, notwithstanding His exceeding sanctity, because He sees us in the Blood of His dear Son. This is a consolation, the balm of which is not easily exhausted. We learn a lesson from it also. Our view of creation should be like God’s view. We should see it, with all its countless souls, through the illuminated mist of the Precious Blood. Its spiritual scenery should be before us, everything everywhere, goldenly red. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 20th [142. continued] Thus all those who sin by presuming that they have deserved any good whatsoever of God are convicted of pride, because by attesting to their own merit they make God a debtor of this grace, which would no longer be grace if we had deserved it. We may well be permitted, with Job, to say that by our sins we have deserved God’s anger and every kind of evil: “Oh, that my sins, whereby I have deserved wrath, were weighed in a balance” [Job vi, 2] but we cannot say that we deserve grace or any good, as St. Paul says: “If by grace it is not now by works, otherwise grace is no more grace.” (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 20th The Mystery of the Precious Blood No sooner had man sinned, than the influence of the Precious Blood began to be felt. There was no adorable abruptness on the part of God, as with the angels. His very unbraiding of Adam was full of paternal gentleness. With His punishment He mingled promises. He spoke of Mary, Eve's descendant, and illumined the penance of our first parents by the prophecy of Jesus. As the poor offending earth lay then before the sight of God, so does it lie now; only that the haze is more resplendent, since the Sacrifice on Calvary was offered. The Precious Blood covers it all over, like a sea or like an atmosphere. It lies in a beautiful crimson light forever, a light softening the very shades, beautifying the very gloom. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 19th [142. continued] And, therefore, St. Bernard reproves him, saying: “O proud soul, what work hast thou done that thou shouldst take thy rest?” What hast thou done, O bold one, to deserve such an honour? And it is thus that those reprobates sinned through pride to whom allusion is made in Luke xvii, 9, who, like the Pharisee, gave thanks to God for the good they did and the evil they left undone: “O God, I give Thee thanks,” etc.; but yet, at the same time, they had the presumption to consider themselves of singular merit, “trusting in themselves.” (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 19th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Had it not been for Jesus, the case of earth would have been hopeless, now that sin had come. God would have let it go, as he had let the angels go. It would have been all hateful and dark in His sight, as the home of the fallen spirits is. But it was not so. Earth was dimmed, but it was not darkened, disfigured but not blackened. God saw it through the Precious Blood, as through a haze; and there it lay with a dusky glory over it, like a red sunset, up to the day of Christ. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 18th 142. The second way in which we can sin in our actions by pride is when, knowing and admitting that we have received such and such a gift of God, we nevertheless attribute it inwardly to our own merit and desire that others should do so likewise, and in our exterior demeanour we behave as if we had indeed deserved to receive these gifts. It was thus that Lucifer sinned through pride; for being infatuated with his own beauty and nobility, and although he recognized that God was the author of it all, he nevertheless had the presumption to think that he had merited it himself and was worthy to sit beside God in the highest Heaven, “I will ascend into Heaven.” [Isai. xiv, 13] (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 18th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Sin came. With sin came many fearful consequences. This beautiful earth was completely wrecked. It went on through space in the sunshine as before: but in God's sight, and in the destiny of its inhabitants, it was all changed. Jesus could no longer come in a glorious and unsuffering Incarnation. Mary would have to die; and, though she was sinless, she would need to be redeemed with a single and peculiar redemption, a redemption of prevention, not of rescue. She also, the immaculate Mother and Queen of creation, must be bought by the Precious Blood. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 17th [141. continued] This is true pride, because if God had given all these good things for our use. He has reserved the glory of them for Himself. “To God alone be glory and honour,” [1 Tim. i, 17] and whoever usurps this glory is guilty of pride. And therefore we must observe with Saint Thomas that in order to commit a sin of pride it is not necessary to declare positively that these gifts do not come from God, for this would be a sin of infidelity, but it is enough that we should glory in them as if they belonged to us, “which relates to pride.” [2a 2æ, qu. clxii] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

St. Anne, pray for us. NOVENA to ST. ANNE (July 17- July 25) Begins today, July 17th, at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi

PRAYER to ST. ANNE May be said as a Novena (July 17- July 25) Begins today, July 17th, at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 17th The Mystery of the Precious Blood To God's eye earth was all the more beautiful because it was innocent, and the dwelling-place of innocence. Then sin came. Why God let it come we do not know. We shall probably know in heaven. We are certain however that in some way or other it was more glorious for Him and better for us, that evil should be permitted. Some people trouble themselves about this. It does not trouble me at all. Whatever God does must of course be most right. ~ 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 16th In the same way the rich man, mentioned in St. Luke, sinned when he took such pleasure in his riches and regarded them as his own substance, saying: “I will gather all things, and will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” [Luke xii, 18, 19] And, therefore, we may say that it is through this pride that all sin who flatter themselves and are ostentatious, glorifying themselves either for their great talents, or for their riches, or their prudence, or their eloquence, or the beauty of their body, or the costliness of their apparel, as if God had nothing to do with it, and who, esteeming themselves immoderately, desire also to be esteemed by others. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 16th 141. St. Gregory and St. Thomas teach that one can sin in four different ways by one’s own acts of pride. The first is when we hold that we have any good, either bodily or spiritual, of ourselves, and glory in it as really belonging to us without thinking of God Who is the giver of all good gifts. It is with this pride that Arfaxad, King of the Medes, sinned when he gloried in the power of his enormous army; and King Nabuchodonosor sinned likewise when he boasted of the building of Babylon: “Is not this the great Babylon which I have built by the strength of my power?” [Dan. iv, 27] (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 16th The Mystery of the Precious Blood We know what an intense pleasure men take in looking at beautiful scenery. When we feel this pleasure, we ought to feel that we are looking at a little revelation of God, a very true one although a little one, and we ought to think of God’s complacency when He beheld the scenery of the primaeval earth, and rejoiced in what He saw. There was no sin then. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

St. Charbel, pray for us. NOVENA to ST. CHARBEL MAKHLUF Feast July 24th Countless, countless miracles are attributed to this remarkable saint of the Middle East, St. Charbel. Begins today at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi

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).