Virgo Potens

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 31st The Mystery of the Precious Blood Sinner, saint, and common Christian, all in their own ways, require the Precious Blood each moment of their lives; and as the manna in the mouths of the Israelites had the savour which each man wished it to have, so is it with the sweetness, the variety, and the fitness of the graces of the Precious Blood. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 30th The Mystery of the Precious Blood It is by the Blood of Jesus that the soul becomes ever more and more radiant. It is the secret source of all mystical transformations of the soul into the likeness of its Crucified Spouse. It is the wine which "inebriates" the virgins of God. Out of it come raptures, and extasies; and by it the strength of faith grows even to the gift of miracles. It fills the mind with heavenly visions, and peoples the air with divine voices. All the new nature of the man, who is "renewed in Christ Jesus," comes from this Blood, whether it be his love of suffering, his delight in shame, his grace of prayer, his unworldly tastes, his strange humility, his shy concealment, his zeal for souls, his venturous audacity, or his obstinate perseverance. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 29th The Mystery of the Precious Blood To its fountains, God calls the sinner, that he may be lightened of his burdens. There is no remission for him in anything else. Only there is his lost sonship to be found. But the saints are no less called by God to these invigorating streams. It is out of the Precious Blood that men draw martyrdoms, vocations, celibacies, austerities, heroic charities, and all the magnificent graces of high sanctity. The secret nourishment of prayer is from these fountains. They purge the eye for sublime contemplations. They kindle the inward fire of self-sacrificing love. They bear a man safely, and even impetuously, over the seeming impossibilities of perseverance. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 28th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Nevertheless the Precious Blood belongs in an especial manner to men. Much more, therefore, does God invite them to come to its heavenly baths, and receive therein, not only the cleansing of their souls, but the power of a new and amazing life. Every doctrine in theology is a call to the Precious Blood. Every ceremony of the Church tells of it. Every sermon that is preached is an exhortation to the use of it. Every Sacrament is a communication of it. Every supernatural act is a growth of it. Everything that is holy on the earth is either leaf, bud, blossom, or fruit of the Blood of Jesus. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860) O Jésus, que votre sang précieux sanctifie les justes et rende la vie aux pêcheurs! O Jesus, may your precious blood sanctify the righteous and give life to sinners!

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 27th The Mystery of the Precious Blood He showed them in that Blood the source of all their graces. Each Angel perhaps had thousands of beautiful graces. To many of them we on earth could give no name, if we beheld them. But they were all wonderful, all instinct with supernatural holiness and spiritual magnificence. Yet there was not a single grace in any angel which was not merited for him by the Blood of Jesus, and which had not also its type and counterpart in that Precious Blood. The Precious Blood, man’s blood, was as the dew of the whole kingdom of the angels. It would have redeemed them, had they needed to be redeemed, or were allowed to be redeemed. But as it was not so, it merited for them, and was the source of, all their grace. Well may the angels claim to sing the song of the Lamb, to whose outpoured Human Life they also owed so much, though not because it was outpoured. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

NOVENA TO ST. DOMINIC de GUZMÁN Founder of the Dominicans (July 26 - August 3) Traditional Feast: August 4th O renowned champion of the faith of Christ, most holy Saint Dominic, who didst renounce the honour and dignity of an earthly principality to embrace the poor, laborious, and mortified life which should distinguish a disciple of Him Who has said: "If any man will come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me."  O burning torch, who being thyself consumed with the fire of divine love, didst incessantly labour to enkindle that sacred flame in the hearts of others, look down upon me from that throne of glory where thou enjoyest the reward of all thy labours, and obtain that some sparks of that blessed fire may be lighted in my soul, to animate and encourage me under any crosses or trials with which it shall please the Divine Goodness to visit me.  Thou, O great Saint, regardest as nothing all the afflictions thou didst endure, and all the toils thou didst undergo for the promotion of God's holy cause; obtain, I beseech Thee, that the same ardent love which strengthened thee, may make sweet to me labours, humiliations, disgraces, or whatever other mortifications I may have to suffer for the Name of Jesus. May I ever bear in mind that nothing can happen to me but by the particular dispensation of a God Who is infinitely wise, and therefore knows what is best for my welfare; infinitely powerful, and consequently able to effect it; and above all, infinitely merciful and loving, Who has laid down His life for my redemption, and continues daily to give new proofs of His love and bounty.  O tender Father of the poor who, when all other resources were exhausted, didst offer thyself for their relief, obtain for me that true spirit of compassion for the suffering members of Jesus Christ, which shone forth so conspicuously in thy holy life. May I, by charity to those whom Jesus so dearly loves, lay up for myself treasures in heaven, where thou now enjoyest that which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, but which God has prepared for those who love Him, and who prove themselves His Disciples by the observance of His Divine precept "love one another."  I praise and thank God for the high degree of sanctity to which He raised thee, and the special privileges by which He has distinguished thee. I conjure thee, by that gratitude with which thou shalt for all eternity be penetrated for thy Divine Benefactor, implore for me the grace to root out of my heart whatever is not agreeable in His sight, especially that evil habit by which I most frequently offend Him. Obtain likewise the favours I request in this Novena, through thy powerful intercession. (Mention your intentions here.) O glorious Mother of God, Queen of the most sacred Rosary, thou who didst love Dominic with the affection of a mother, and were most tenderly loved and honoured by him, look upon me, for his sake, with an eye of pity, deign to join with him in presenting these petitions to thy most Blessed Jesus. I sincerely desire from this moment to love Him with all my heart, and serve Him with all my strength, and now place myself under thy powerful protection, as a sure means of obtaining all the graces necessary to serve Him faithfully here, that I may eternally rejoice with Him hereafter. Amen. St. Dominic, pray for us

July 26th ~ St. Anne ~ Mother of Our Blessed Lady Patron Saint of Christian Mothers Information regarding the parents of Our Lady comes from apocryphal literature, the earliest of which dates from about 150 A.D. However, as recorded in The Mystical city of God, Volume I by Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady also revealed to her the marvelous circumstances of the holy parents given to her by God, the details of which further elaborate on these early writings. Dom Guéranger says, in The Liturgical Year, Vol. 13, “Anne was, as it were, the starting-point of redemption . . . . How justly is the mother named Anne, which signifies grace, she in whom for nine months were centered the complacencies of the Most High, the ecstasy of the angelic spirits, and the hope of all flesh!” The life of St. Anne, as found in the Protoevangelium, was used to establish these feasts of Our Lady: the Nativity (Sept. 8), the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), and the Presentation (Nov. 21). St. Anne, pray for us.

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 26th The Mystery of the Precious Blood He showed them His beloved Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, in His Sacred Humanity, united to a lower nature than their own, and in that lower nature crowned their King and Head, to be worshipped by them with absolute and unconditional adoration. The Son of a human mother was to be their Head, and that daughter of Eve to be herself their queen. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

July 25th ~ St. James the Greater ~ Apostle Patron Saint of pilgrims and of Spain (b. Galilee, Palestine - d. 44 A.D., Jerusalem) St. James the Greater, a Galilean, was one of the first Apostles to be called by Our Lord, and is therefore called “Greater”. He was the brother of St. John the Evangelist; Our Lord called them Boanerges or “Sons of Thunder”. With Peter and John, he was one of the three Apostles most loved by Our Lord, and witnessed the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead, the Transfiguration, and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. After the Ascension, he preached the Gospel in Samaria, Judea and Spain, where he was encouraged by Our Lady through her miraculous appearance in 40 A.D. He was condemned by Herod Agrippa and beheaded in Jerusalem in 44 A.D., the only martyrdom of an Apostle recorded in the New Testament. His relics were eventually transported to Spain where they are still venerated in Compostela. St. James, pray for us.

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 25th The Mystery of the Precious Blood The angels wonder more than men, because they better understand it. Their superior intelligence ministers more abundant matter to their love. From the very first He invited the angels to adore it. He made their adoration a double exercise of humility, of humility towards Himself, and of humility towards us their inferior fellow-creatures. It was the test to which He put their loyalty. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 24th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Our Heavenly Father, then, may well call His creatures to gather round these marvellous Fountains, and adore His wisdom and His love. Who could have dreamed of such an invention, an invention which grows more astonishing the more we penetrate its mystery? ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

O most loving Jesus, give me an earnest will to forsake all evil, and to return to Thee, my chief good, to repent of my sins out of true love, to guard against them for the future, to shun the occasion by which I have hitherto been enticed into sin, and by the practice of good works to redeem the time lost. Grant me this, O Jesus, by Thy bitter passion and death, and through the intercession of the holy penitent Magdalen. Amen. ~ Goffine’s Devout Instructions, Feast of the Holy Penitent Mary Magdalen (July 22)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 23rd The Mystery of the Precious Blood It is by this Blood that He has created over again His frustrated creation. It is out of this Blood that all graces come, whether those of Mary, or those of the angels, or those of men. It is this Blood which merits all good things for every one. The unhappy would be more unhappy, were it not for this Blood. The wicked would be more wicked were it not for this Blood. The flames of hell would burn many times more furiously, if the shedding of this Blood had not allayed their fury. There is not a corner of God's creation, which is not more or less under the benignant controul of the Precious Blood. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Prayer to St. Ignatius Loyola, Confessor July 22nd - 30th (may be said as a Novena) O Glorious Patriarch St. Ignatius, we humbly beseech thee to obtain for us from Almighty God, above all things else, deliverance from sin, which is the greatest of evils, and next, from those scourges wherewith the Lord chastises the sins of His people. May thine example enkindle in our hearts an effectual desire to employ ourselves continually in laboring for the greater glory of God and the good of our fellow-men; obtain for us, likewise, from the loving Heart of Jesus our Lord, that grace which is the crown of all graces, that is to say, the grace of final perseverance and everlasting happiness. Amen An indulgence of 300 days. A plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, once a month, when this prayer has been recited daily. (S.C. Ind., Feb. 5, 1885; S.P. Ap., May 20, 1933). (The Raccolta, 1957) St. Ignatius Loyola, pray for us.

July 22nd ~ St. Mary Magdalene ~ Apostle to the Apostles Patron Saint of Penitents (1st century - d. circa 63 A.D.) Mary Magdalene, that is, “of Magdala,” is the Mary from whom Our Lord cast out “seven demons” (Luke 8:2). She is the sister of St. Lazarus and St. Martha, and at her ardent plea, Our Lord raised St. Lazarus from the dead. She was one of the many “who were assisting them [Jesus and the Twelve] out of their means,” and one of the few who stood by the cross of Our Saviour with Our Blessed Lady and St. John. She was also one of the first to see the Risen Lord after His resurrection, and was sent by Him to inform the Apostles of this great miracle. She is known as the “Apostle to the Apostles.” St. Mary Magdalene, pray for us.

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)

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 ~ 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)