Virgo Potens

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 23rd 2. The sentence will be not only just but merciful. All the lost will acknowledge that their punishment is less than they deserved. They will recognize an element of mercy, and will be forced amid their despair and hatred of Go, amid their curses and blasphemies, to confess that they have been leniently dealt with in comparison with their sins. 3. The sentence will be irrevocable. Even at the Particular Judgment the soul will know its final destiny. But at the General Judgment the sentence will be confirmed and ratified in the presence of the holy angels and the assembled crowd. How strange it is, then, that in view of this we take so little trouble to secure a favorable sentence! Pray that to you may be addressed the gracious words: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 23rd 23rd Day — The Final Sentence The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. (St. Matt. xxv. 46.) 1. The sentence pronounced at the Last Judgment will be one of perfect justice. Every little circumstance will be taken into account; inherited character, natural disposition, fierce passions, favorable or unfavorable circumstances, early training, opportunities of grace, sacraments, temptations, everything. All who are lost will confess that they have been treated with perfect justice, that it was their own fault, that it was they who condemned themselves to eternal separation from God. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 22nd 2. On that day what a complete reverse there will be of all the world's unjust verdicts! How many, now ridiculed, despised, condemned, will then be glorious and honored before men and angels! What will my sentiments be on that day when the thoughts of all hearts will be revealed? 3. On the right of the Judge will be the sheep, left, the goats; the one overflowing with celestial delights, the other already filled with the despair of hell. What will distinguish between them ? Simply this, whether they have shown charity to others for Christ's sake. This and nothing else will be the test— " In as much as you have done it to one of My least brethren you have done it tonMe." How shall I stand this test? Ask God to teach you how to secure a place on the right hand of the Judge. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 22nd 22nd Day — The General Judgment Behold He cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him. (Apoc. i. 7.) 1. At the General Judgment Christ as man will be the Judge of men, because He is at once God and man. He will therefore have not only the most intimate knowledge of all our lives, but a sympathy with us, an understanding of our nature from experience, that will give Him in the natural order the highest qualifications for being our Judge. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 21st 2. We shall then stand face to face with Jesus Christ, no longer as our Advocate, but as our Judge; no longer pleading for us, but dealing out strict justice, according to our deserts. He will be clothed with a divine glory that will attract us and at the same time fill us with dismay at the thought of having offended Him. St. Teresa said that what struck her most forcibly in the vision she had of Him was how awful would be the anger of one so full of divine sweetness. 3. Yet we need not fear the judgment if we make Christ our friend now. If we earn His gratitude by doing all we can to please Him, He will not remember our former sins. He will look to what we are, not what we have been. He will not remember the sins of those who love Him with all their hearts. The same St. Teresa said: "Why should I fear the judgment when my Judge will be my best friend?" Pray that you may forestall the judgment by a careful examination of your conscience now, and an earnest desire to please your Judge. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

The Death of the Unrepentant Sinner The Death of the Righteous The Particular Judgment Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 21st 21st Day — The Particular Judgment We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. (2 Cor. v. 10.) 1. At the Particular Judgment we shall see our lives as they never appeared to us before. In an instant we shall live them over again. Each thought, word, act, will be clear and distinct, with its true character no longer hidden by our own wilful blindness, but in all its foulness, baseness, ingratitude, revealed to us in the bright light of God. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 20th 2. Death is the end of our time of trial. After it our destiny will be irrevocably fixed. No more chance of doing penance, no more opportunities of contrition, no more merit, no more grace, no more calls to repentance, no more hope for those who reject God in this life. No wonder, then, that men dread it. Yet death is standing at our very doors; at any moment the King of Terrors may summon us away. Am I prepared for the summons? 3. Yet to those who love God death loses all its terrors. For them it is the beginning of their true life. All their hopes have been directed to the unseen world; why should they fear? Their heart is in heaven and their treasure is in heaven, their King, and Lord is there, and all their dearest and best friends, and the angels and the saints. How happy are those who are thus detached from this world and ever look to the world to come ! Pray for a happy death. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 20th 20th Day — Death It is appointed unto men once to die. (Heb. ix. 27.) 1. Why is death a terror to men? Because it is the punishment of sin, the penalty that was attached by God Himself to the first transgression of His law — "In the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt die the death." For this reason we shrink from it as the mark and sign of our fallen and degraded condition. Disease, corruption, old age, decay, are its forerunners, and are invested with the same reproach as testimonies to our being born in sin. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 19th 2. David, the man after God's own heart, in a moment of vanity determined to number the people, boastfully priding himself on the strength of his fighting men. In punishment of this, God sent a pestilence which in less than three days destroyed seventy thousand of the Israelites. Jerusalem itself would have been decimated had not David entreated God to avert His destroying hand. How God must hate venial sin! 3. After death there will remain for most a debt to be still paid for venial sin. It is in purgatory that we shall see it’s true character. No earthly agony even approaches the agony of the purgatorial fire. The souls God loves must be tormented there till they have paid the last farthing. Alas! what do I still owe? Am I doing my best to pay the debt and avoid adding to it? Beg for an intense dread of venial sin. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 19th 19th Day — The Punishment of Venial Sin Thou shall not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing. (St. Matt. v. 26.) Venial sin is the great evil in the world next to mortal sin, and therefore it deserves a punishment greater than all the miseries of earth. God has taught us what sort of an evil it is by one or two instances of the way in which He visits it in this life. 1. Moses, the friend of God, the chosen ruler of His people, the meekest of men, to whom God conversed as friend with friend, once committed a venial sin. He gave way to momentary impatience and lost his temper under provocation. For this God denied him admission into the promised land. After his long and faithful service, God sent him up to die on Mount Nebo before the Jordan was crossed. All the forty years of weary travel did not avail him; the venial sin cut him off before the goal was reached. (continued)

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 18th 2. Venial sin is small as compared with mortal sin, but it is small only as ten thousand years are small compared with eternity. It is the greatest evil in the whole world with the exception of mortal sin. It is committed against an Infinite God. It can only be expiated by the infinite merits of Jesus Christ; it will add to the sufferings of the lost to all eternity. 3. Venial sin is of two kinds : (1) Deliberate, when, knowing that what I am about to do will give pain to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I nevertheless do it to gratify myself. This is the worst kind, and the guilt of it is sometimes very great. (2) Indeliberate, or semi-deliberate, when on impulse or without thinking I do what is faulty. Yet I might have foreseen the danger and been more vigilant. Ask God to help you to appreciate the evil of one venial sin. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 18th 18th Day — Venial Sin With these [wounds] I was wounded in the house of them that loved me. (Zach. xiii. 6.) 1. Venial sin does not, like mortal sin, kill the soul and make us the enemies of God; but it is a disease which disfigures the soul and renders it unfit for union with Him until it has been purged away. It is the path that leads to hell by paving the way little by little for the entrance of mortal sin. It is an unkindness which destroys the warmth of our love and creates a coldness towards God. (continued)

ST. STEPHEN Antiphon and Prayer A Novena in honor of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (December 17th ~ December 25th) Begins today, December 17th, at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 17th 2. Add to this the frightful monotony of their torments. How wearily the time drags on through a night sleepless on account of acute pain! But what will be the monotony of anguish that will make those endless ages drag along in unchanging misery? Nothing to vary the blackness of darkness around them; nothing to vary the worm of remorse ever gnawing at their heart; nothing to vary the excruciating agony of the fire that will never be quenched. 3. All this is the necessary result of their being fixed in an unchanging enmity to God. If only they could receive in their souls one spark of the love of God, they would at once cease to be hell. One thought of love would turn their agony of despair into joyful hope. But no such thought will ever come to them. Make acts of love of God, and ask Him that you may never be separated from Him by sin. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 17th 17th Day — The Eternity of Hell This is my rest forever and ever. (Ps. cxxxi. 14 ) 1. The worst aggravation of the sufferings of hell is that they will never end. If only they would cease or be alleviated after a thousand or a million years, the day of hope would shine on the inmates of that prison-house, even though far away in the dim distance. It is the knowledge that at the end of countless millions of years they will still be suffering as now, that makes the agony of the lost so intolerable. Forever, never! Forever, never! (continued)

✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯ THE EMBER DAYS OF ADVENT The four seasons of the ecclesiastical year are consecrated to God by the Ember Days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday). They are an occasion of thanking God for the blessings received during the previous season, of praying for those to be ordained, and of renewing ourselves spiritually. They are days of fast and abstinence. ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal, 1950 ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 16th 2. If the advantage is lost purely through our own fault, this greatly increases our misery. We fools! We had so many chances, we knew so well that we were forfeiting our eternal inheritance! It is this that changes sorrow into remorse, and adds to suffering the horror and blackness of despair. All through our own fault! What a thought to dwell with me through all eternity ! 3. What is it that we have lost? That will be the bitterest thought of all. We have lost the sweet music of heaven, we have lost the company of the saints and angels, we have lost the enchanting happiness of gazing on the Sacred Humanity of Jesus in all its glory, and, above all, we have lost the unspeakable joy of the beatific vision. We fools! Pray God that the dread of this thought hereafter may keep you from sin. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 16th 16th Day — The Aggravations of Hell Here will I dwell, for I have chosen it. (Ps. cxxxi. 14 ) Every thought of the lost will aggravate, not alleviate, their sufferings. Let us review one or two of the thoughts that will be ever present to their minds. 1. They might so easily have been saved! One act of contrition at the last, one grace accepted out of the countless graces that were deliberately set at naught, and they might have been with the angels in heaven instead of with the devils in hell. To know that we have just missed some advantage that we might with a little trouble have secured for ourselves is always a tormenting thought. How much more when it is heaven that is lost! (continued)

In the final days before Christmas, there are many beautiful ways that we can continue to prepare our hearts to receive Our Divine Saviour. NOVENA FOR CHRISTMAS NINE MEDITATIONS, ONE FOR EACH DAY OF THE NOVENA December 16th - December 24th Join us for this beautiful Novena written by St. Alphonsus Liguori. Begins tomorrow at Catholic Universe ~ https://t.me/Catholic_Universe