Catholic Tower

Month of the the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 11th MOTHER OF OUR CREATOR RELATION OF MARY WITH THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (continued) How sweet, yet potent are the bonds which unite the Son of God to His Blessed Mother! What intimacy in the intercourse between Jesus and Mary! Jesus revealing to Mary all the secrets of His Heart, and Mary modeling her every action on the life of the Saviour. ~ Very Rev. Alexis M. Lepicier, O.S.M., The Fairest Flower of Paradise (1922)

Sayings of the Saints “My children, St. Philomena has great power with God, and she has, moreover, a kind heart; let us pray to her with confidence. Her virginity and generosity in embracing her heroic martyrdom have rendered her so agreeable to God that He will never refuse her anything that she asks for us.” ~ St. John Vianney St. Philomena, pray for us. St. John Vianney, pray for us.

What every Christian must believe 11 - We must believe that there is, in the catholic or universal church of God, a communion of saints, by means of which we communicate with all holy ones, and in all holy things. We communicate with the saints in heaven, as our fellow-members under the same head Christ Jesus ; we give thanks to God for his gifts to them, and we beg a share in their prayers. We communicate with all the saints upon earth, in the same sacraments and sacrifice, and in a hcly union of faith and charity. And we communicate with the faithful (who have departed this life in a more imperfect state, and who, by the law of God’s justice, are for a while in a place of suffering) by offering prayers, and alms, and sacrifice to God for them. ~ Richard Challoner, The Garden of the Soul. (1775)

2 of 2 September 14th - EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS MATINS (continued from above) So when now at length the fulness Of the sacred time drew nigh, Then the Son, the world’s Creator, Left His Father’s throne on high ; From a Virgin’s womb appearing, Cloth’d in our mortality. All within a lowly manger, Lo, a tender babe He lies ! See His gentle Virgin mother Lull to sleep His infant cries ! While the limbs of God Incarnate Round with swathing bands she ties. Blessing, honour everlasting, To the immortal Deity ; To the Father, Son, and Spirit, Equal praises ever be ; Glory through the earth and Heaven To Trinity in Unity. Lyra Catholica: Containing All the Breviary and Missal Hymns. Rev. Fr. Edward Caswall, M.A., translator. (1849)

1 of 2 September 14th - EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS (As on PASSION SUNDAY) MATINS Pange lingua gloriosi SING, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory ; Tell His triumph far and wide ; Tell aloud the famous story Of His Body crucified ; How upon the Cross a Victim, Vanquishing in death, He died. Eating of the Tree forbidden, Man had sunk in Satan’s snare, When our pitying Creator Did this second Tree prepare ; Destin’d, many ages later, That first evil to repair. Such the order God appointed When for sin He would atone ; To the Serpent thus opposing Schemes yet deeper than his own ; Thence the remedy procuring, Whence the fatal wound had come. (continued)

2 of 2 Prayer to St. Philomena Therefore it is to thee that I lift my suppliant hands. Ah! from the heights of the heavenly country, deign to cast a glance on me, thy humble client. O pure Virgin, O holy martyr, solace me in suffering and temptation, sustain me in trial and persecution, and assist me in danger, above all at the awful hour of death, when I shall have to combat all the powers of hell; pray for me in that final moment upon which my eternity hangs. Hail Philomena, pearl of virgins, generous spouse of the King of kings! Hail, flower of martyrs, living host of Christ! Refuse not the succor of thy prayer to those who invoke it venerating thy merits. Amen. ~ Prayers and Devotions (1954)

PRAYER to SAINT PHILOMENA ST. PHILOMENA, behold me before the bright throne whereon the august Trinity hath set thee wearing thy double crown of virginity and martyrdom; behold, I lift suppliant hands to thee. Even the most cruel sufferings could not diminish the devotion of thy generous heart to the Celestial Lover Who was thy joy. And now thy Lord, to recompense these sufferings, wills to glorify thee by the mightiness of thy intercessions. (continued)

Prayer Our Lord said to St. Mechtilde: Whoever shall breathe a sigh towards Me from the bottom of his heart when he awakes in the morning, and shall ask Me to work all his works in him throughout the day, he will draw Me to him; so that his soul shall have life from Me even as his body has life from his soul, and he shall do all things through Me and by Me. For never does a man breathe a sigh of longing aspiration towards Me without drawing Me nearer to him than I was before. O MOST loving Jesus, I breathe towards Thee this sigh, drawn from the depth of my heart, beseeching Thee with all my might that Thou wouldst deign Thyself to work in me all my works, whether of body or of soul, to cleanse them all in thy sweetest Heart, and to offer them, in union with Thine Own most perfect works, to God the Father as an eternal thanksgiving. Amen. ~ Preces Gertrudianae (1861)

September 11th ~ Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, Martyrs These holy martyrs, scourged and beheaded, during the persecutions of the Third Century, were commemorated by Pope Damasus with the following inscription: “The kingdom of heaven holds thee, O Protus, and thither dost thou follow him, O valiant Hyaclnth, robed in the purple of thy blood. They were brothers and were unconquered in spirit. Protus first won his crown, but Hyacinth equally deserved the palm." ~ The New Roman Missal (1937) Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, pray for us.

Protus and Hyacinth, two brothers, were scourged and died at Rome in 260, during the reign of Galienus and Valerian. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ September 11th ~ FEAST of STS. PROTUS and HYACINTH, Martyrs MAY the glorious confession of Protus and Hyacinth, Thy Blessed Martyrs, strengthen us , O Lord, and may their loving intercession continually protect us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, September 11, Sts. Protus and Hyacinth ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, pray for us.

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 11th This darkness of agony was lightened for the moment by the joy of the reunion. For Jesus ‘went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them’. But the darkness came down again when Jesus left them to go into the desert. And out of the darkness there came to Mary a great light. She understood the special road that she must tread. It was not that her Son doubted her. He separated Himself from her thus bodily only that He might associate her in that agony of desolation in which the redemption had to be accomplished. In the garden of Gethsemane the three favoured disciples were only a stone’s cast away. But their eyes were heavy with sleep. She, who would not have slept, could not be so close. Nor could any visible being. Only, for the space of an instant, when His sweat became as drops of blood, there appeared to Him an angel from heaven (Luke xxiii, 43). Mary was beginning to see these deepest depths. She was discovering the place that abandonment must have in the work of redemption. With that, all reason for reproach vanished. Her Son, in thus making her drink His chalice in advance, loved her if that were possible even more than she could have dared to hope. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 11th For Mary then this was a mysterious trial. A bleak night came down upon her heart. Though she was without shadow of sin it must have seemed to her that she was unworthy of her mission, rejected by her Son, and in such a feeling there was measureless agony. All these years earlier she had a foretaste of desolation like that which her Son was to know in His passion. The cry of her heart, could one but have heard it, must have been like a first shadowing forth of a more terrible cry that still rends the hearts of men, for what could she have felt but ‘My Son, my Son, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ (continued)

Sayings of the Saints “Have patience with all things, but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You are a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that.” ~ St. Francis de Sales St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

What every Christian must believe 10 - We must believe, that Jesus Christ has also instituted the great eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood, in remembrance of his death and passion. In this sacrifice he is mystically immolated every day upon our altars, being himself both priest and victim. This sacrifice is the principal worship of the new law, in which, and by which, we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, and with him, and through him, we adore God in spirit and truth, give him thanks for all his blessings, obtain his grace for ourselves and the whole world, and pardon for all our sins, and those of the living and the dead. ~ Richard Challoner, The Garden of the Soul. (1775)

ASPIRATION Mother of love, of sorrow and of mercy, pray for us. (Roman Breviary). Mater amóris, dolóris et misericórdiæ, ora pro nobis. (ex Breviario Romano). An indulgence of 300 days (Pius X, Audience, May 14, 1908; S. C. Ind., May 30, 1908). ~ The Raccolta (1957)

2 of 2 September 14th - EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS VESPERS (continued from above) Most royally empurpled o’er, How beauteously thy stem doth shine ! How glorious was its lot to touch Those limbs so holy and divine ! Thrice blest, upon whose arms outstretch’d The Saviour of the world reclin’d ; Balance sublime ! upon whose beam Was weigh’d the ransom of mankind. Hail, Cross ! thou only hope of man, Hail on this holy Passion-day ! To saints increase the grace they have ; From sinners purge their guilt away. Salvation’s spring, blest Trinity, Be praise to Thee through earth and skies : Thou through the Cross the victory Dost give ; oh, also give the prize ! Lyra Catholica: Containing All the Breviary and Missal Hymns. Rev. Fr. Edward Caswall, M.A., translator. (1849)

1 of 2 September 14th - EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS (As on PASSION SUNDAY) VESPERS Vexilla Regis prodeunt FORTH comes the Standard of the King : All hail, thou Mystery ador’d ! Hail, Cross ! on which the Life Himself Died, and by death our life restor’d. On which our Saviour’s holy side, Rent open with a cruel spear, Of blood and water pour’d a stream, To wash us from defilement clear. O sacred Wood ! in thee fulfill’d Was holy David’s truthful lay ; Which told the world, that from a Tree The Lord should all the nations sway. (continued)

September 10th ~ St. Nicholas.of Tolentino, Confessor St. Nicholas of Tolentino, in central Italy, received his name because he was born after his parents had made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Nicholas of Bari. He is one of the glories of the Hermits of St. Augustine. His life is remarkable because of the great devotion which he showed to the mystery of the Christ. He had impressed upon his body the stigmata of Christ. He is represented holding a lily, because he was always a model of innocence and purity. His feast dates from the time of Sixtus V. ~ The New Roman Missal (1937) St. Nicholas of Tolentino, pray for us.

St. Nicholas entered the Augustinian Order. He is distinguished for his innocence and for his devotion to the souls in purgatory. He died in 1310. ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ September 10th ~ FEAST of ST. NICHOLAS of TOLENTINE, Confessor GIVE ear, O Lord, to our supplications which we present to Thee on the feast of Blessed Nicholas, Thy Confessor, so that we, who put no trust in our own righteousness, may be aided by the prayers of him who was pleasing to Thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, September 10, St. Nicholas of Tolentine ~ The Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1950) ✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧ St. Nicholas of Tolentine, pray for us.

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 10th Yet they knew full well that they were not in fault, that there had been no failure of their love. Then why should He treat them so, why cause them so much pain? This was the point of the reproach that Mary uttered, associating with herself by a tender movement of her charity the husband who suffered with her in silence: ‘Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.’ His answer seems harsh, so harsh that it does not at first yield up all the light that it contains: ‘And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them.’ It was the beginning of the third sorrow. ‘They understood not the word that He spoke unto them.’ Yet they knew perfectly well that He must be with His Father, about His Father’s business. The Angel had announced to Mary that His name should be called Jesus, which is Saviour, that He would reign in the house of Jacob forever (Luke i, 31 and 33). Simeon had said further that in spite of the contradictions of which He should be the sign, He would be the glory of God’s people Israel and a light to the revelation of the Gentiles (Luke ii, 32). She had not forgotten any one of these words. Thus she knew the supernatural mission of her Child. She knew that He was more God’s Son than hers, that He belonged to God more than to her. But so far she had no more than an obscure presentiment of the mysterious demands of that grace which had made of her the Mother of God the Saviour. Naturally He must be with His father, but did that mean that He must detach her from Himself? Why must He occupy Himself without her with that business which was to her as it was to Him dearer than life? Did He doubt her love or her fidelity or even her courage — she who would have followed him anywhere! ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)