Virgo Potens

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ The Sacred Heart at Bethlehem 1. Mary, when about to bring forth her first born Son, could find no shelter at Bethlehem, and had to take refuge in the cave which served as a stable for the oxen. Meanwhile, the Sacred Heart of Jesus was experiencing, even before His birth, the sort of treatment that He was to receive all His life long. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. It is the same now: He begs for admittance now as then. Mary and Joseph are still His faithful companions; but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph still ask in vain for admittance. O my Jesus! have I ever refused to open when Thou hast called by the secret whisper of Thy grace? (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 7th But of what use would this recognition that everything comes from God be, except to refer all things to Him and to thank Him? Do you thank God for the many blessings which you are constantly receiving from Him–—from your very heart, with true humility, believing yourself to be so miserable that you would fall into every sin, and even into Hell itself, if God did not come to your help? “Unless the Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in Hell.” [Ps. xciii, 17] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 7th 115. If you have any good quality, either bodily or spiritual, and if you have done any good work, do you recognize that it all comes from, God, attributing all the glory to God as due to Him alone? “To the only God be honour and glory.” [2 Tim. i, 17] In this, says St. Paul, we discern the spirit of God which is the spirit of humility, from the spirit of the world which is the spirit of pride, because whoever has the spirit of God acknowledges that all that he has is simply a gift from God. “Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God.” [1 Cor. ii, 12] (continued)

✧✿───✧✧✿✧✧───✿✧ Heart of Jesus, perfect model of meekness, inspire my heart with this salutary virtue. ✧✿───✧✧✿✧✧───✿✧

2 of 2 ~ 25.— Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi 2. True gratitude aims at returning like for like. It is not content to be outdone in generosity. It seeks, if possible, to repay with greater favors the favors shown to it. If I desire to be generous, what sort of return ought I to make to Christ my Lord forgiving Himself to me in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar? Can I ever do enough for Him in return for what He has done for me? What sacrifice that I can make is more than an infinitesimal part of what I ought to do for Him? 3. Gratitude requires of us that if we cannot surpass our benefactor in liberality, we should at least be on a level with him. Is it possible ever to come up to the generosity of Jesus Christ in humbling Himself for my sake to the form of a little piece of bread? If for millions of years I were to sacrifice to Him health, comfort, reputation, I should still not have done a million-millionth part of all He has done for me. What can I do? I can simply tell Him that I will give Him myself and all I have, and that I would fain give more. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS June 7th, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 25.— Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi The Return of Love for Love 1. We all of us shrink from the charge of ingratitude. Whatever else we may be, we flatter ourselves that we are not ungrateful, that we love those who love us, and seek to repay our benefactors with affection and gratitude, if not with some positive and substantial return for all they have done for us. I should not like to be deemed ungrateful. I should resist the imputation of ingratitude. Yet can I say that I am grateful to Christ Jesus for all His wonderful love to me? (continued)

✧✿───✧✧✿✧✧───✿✧ Heart of Jesus, sovereignly humble, annihilate my pride. ✧✿───✧✧✿✧✧───✿✧

2 of 2 The Earliest Pulsatihons of the Sacred Heart 2. What was the second thought following close on this, and, in a manner, one with it? It was an acceptance of the special work God had sent Him to do. God sent His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved. He received with joy the task of the world's redemption, though He knew full well all it would cost Him. I shall never tread in the footsteps of Jesus until I learn by the sacrifice of myself to imitate His Sacred Heart. 3. The will of God thus recognized, the Sacred Heart conceived at once an intense love for each and all of those whom He had come to redeem. They were entrusted to Him by His Eternal Father, they were His brethren, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, and His Heart went out towards them with the yearning of an intense affection. He yearned for the happiness and salvation of each with a Divine longing. He yearned then and yearns now for my happiness. Courage, then, faint heart, and think of the love of the Heart of Jesus for thee ! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Voilà ce cœur qui vous a tant aimés. Behold this heart which has so loved you. Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ The Earliest Pulsations of the Sacred Heart 1. What was the first thought that flashed through the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Naught else than an act of complete and absolute submission to the holy will of God: "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God," and a joy in the prospect of living for no other end than this: "I am content to do it; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Here is the foundation of all holiness— perfect conformity to the Divine will. Yet, how rare it is! How sadly wanting in my sinful heart ! (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 6th The best means to oblige God to deliver us from our troubles is to humble ourselves, and King David testifies to this by his own experience in Ps. cxiv, 4, 6: “I met with trouble and sorrow, I was humbled and He delivered me.” Do you ever practice this means of humbling yourself in your troubles, protesting that you have merited them, and deserve them if for no other reason than on account of your pride? God sends adversity to you to humble you, and He humbles you so that from this humiliation you may learn humility. But what fruit of humility have you gathered from all the adversity you have had hitherto? Can you say, as Moses said to the Hebrews: “We have rejoiced for the days in which Thou hast humbled us”? [Ps. lxxxix, 15] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 6th 114. How do you resign your will to the will of God in the time of adversity, which is especially the time when we ought to humble ourselves, as the Holy Ghost tells us by the mouth of St. Peter: “Be thou humble therefore under the mighty hand of God”? [1 Pet. v, 6] As all the troubles of this world are ordained by God, and yours are sent to you by Him especially to humble your pride and keep you in due humility, do you really receive them with such intention as to correspond with the intention of God, saying with the Prophet: “It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me”? [Ps. cxviii, 71] (continued)

2 of 2 ~ 24.— Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi 2. But His love has not yet exhausted itself. With an extravagant generosity passing our powers of comprehension, He has determined to give Himself to be His children's food, and, in so doing, to give them at the same time eternal life. As He Himself says, "He that eateth Me shall live by Me." He desires to unite Himself to us in bonds of the closest union. He desires to be wholly ours, that we may thus become wholly His. Who save a God would ever have devised such a means as this of satisfying His love? 3. What, too, was involved in the adoption of this means? How many frightful insults and outrages inflicted on Him! How many sacrilegious Communions! Sometimes the trampling underfoot of the sacred Host, sometimes still more terrible profanation! Jesus knew to what He was rendering Himself liable when He chose this means of showing His love,and deliberately chose it. O my Jesus, how can I ever love Thee as I ought in return for such love as this! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS June 6th, 2026 ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ ~ 24.— Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi Further Proofs of Jesus' Love for us 1. Our Lord is not satisfied with mystically dying for us day by day upon the altar. He in His incredible love must go still further. He must remain in every church all the day and all the night, unable, so to speak, to tear Himself away from those He loves. In spite of all man's base ingratitude and cruel neglect, He still cries out, with that insatiable ardor of His love, "My delight is to be with the sons of men." Was there ever love like His? (continued)

2 of 2 ACT of REPARATION to the IMMACULATE HEART of MARY (To be recited on First Saturdays) Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. A word from thee will obtain grace and amendment for us all. Hasten, O Lady, the conversion of sinners, that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord, already so much offended, and will not fall into hell. Turn thine eyes of mercy towards us, that henceforth we may love God with all our hearts while on earth and enjoy Him forever in heaven. Amen.

ACT of REPARATION to the IMMACULATE HEART of MARY (To be recited on First Saturdays) Most holy Virgin and our Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of thine Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Moved by the ardent desire of loving thee as our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to thine Immaculate Heart, we prostrate ourselves at thy feet to prove the sorrow we feel for the grievances that men cause thee, and to atone, by means of our prayers and sacrifices, for the offenses with which men return thy tender love. (continued)

❀•°❀°•❀•°❀°•❀ •°❀°•❀ THE FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS MARY’S GREAT PROMISE AT FATIMA THE observance of the First Saturday in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is intended to console her Immaculate Heart, and to make reparation for all the blasphemies and ingratitude of men. This devotion and the wonderful promises connected with it were revealed by the Blessed Virgin with these words recorded by Lucy, one of the three children to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917: I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months shall: 1. Confess and receive Holy Communion. 2. Recite five decades of the Rosary. 3. And keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me. NOTE: Confession during the week, preceding the first Friday, will suffice for the first Saturday, or conversely when Saturday is the first day of the month. The Rosary May be recited at any convenient time of the day, and the fifteen minute meditation may be made at any time during the day on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. A sermon for the occasion may be substituted for the meditation. ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ❀•°❀°•❀•°❀°•❀ •°❀°•❀

June 6th, 2026 FIRST SATURDAY of JUNE 💙 “See my daughter, how my heart is encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and announce that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who on the First Saturdays of five consecutive months, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite part of My Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on its mysteries with the intention of offering me reparation.” ~ Words of Our Lady to Sr. Marie (Lucia dos Santos) on December 10, 1925 If possible, make First Saturday devotions today, in reparation for offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as requested by Our Lady herself in 1925, and confirmed by Our Lord in 1927.

2 of 2 The First Worshippers 2. There was another present who joined with Mary in her submission, in her gladness, in the union of her will with God's. Gabriel, before he departed from her, humbly adored his Incarnate God, doing reverence to that Sacred Heart of Jesus, and rejoicing in the Divine decree that was to be the means of filling up the places in heaven of those who had fallen from their high estate. 3. A few days passed, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus received from another the testimony of his recognition and his joy. The unborn infant in Elizabeth's womb leaped with delight within his mother's womb, and received from the Sacred Heart the gift of being freed from the stain of sin and clad in the robe of justice. To me, too, the Sacred Heart offers the same happiness, if only I choose to avail myself of it! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ The First Worshippers 1. When the Angel's message came to Mary, and she had accepted the Divine decree, she be came conscious of the presence in her womb of the Incarnate God, in whose Sacred Heart was centred His love for fallen man. What was her prevailing sentiment in contemplating this mystery of Divine compassion? We know it from her own words. She desired that her heart should humbly cooperate with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that she, in the lowly capacity of His handmaid, should be allowed to take her share in the work He had come to do. (continued)

Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 5th 113. When you attempt to disobey any of the Divine commandments how do you behave? It is especially in the time of temptation that humility is necessary. Every time the devil tempts you to commit some grave sin, he tempts you to revolt against God, and to despise and offend Him. ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).