November Plenaries, Part 2

Some Suggestions (what I do:)

I try to get as many plenaries as I can each year (I’ve only been doing this for a few years now)…in other words, I visit a lot of cemeteries! Visiting various cemeteries is an adventure unto itself. Sometimes, with all the hills, it feels like hiking. Many have interesting historic elements. I find it is always intriguing, educational and spiritually beneficial. Bringing young ones helps them to confront the reality of death, hopefully before experiencing the loss of a loved one. I lost my father suddenly from a heart attack, when I was barely 7 years old. Needless to say, this was a deeply traumatic first experience with death. We should not seek to shelter our children from death, as they will certainly deal with it eventually. When a neighbor passed, when my son was little, I brought him to the wake, so he could have that experience. He dealt very well with it. After all, death is a natural part of life and God gives us the grace to handle it with His help, however terrible it may be.

Each year, I make a plan for visiting cemeteries in my area, or where loved ones are buried….and I make a list of the next 8 people I would like to attempt to get into Heaven. I keep a running list of those I have already performed the plenary for. For those I feel especially indebted to, I may perform it more than once. I have a set of prayers that I say, in addition to the requirements.

Do not take these plenaries lightly, as it is without saying, a truly extraordinary thing that is being done. Of course, our own unworthiness to expiate punishment for sin and be the vehicle through which a soul enters the eternal bliss of the Beatific Vision, is foremost in our minds. But we trust in what Holy Church teaches. As we accept God’s mercy in Confession, we also accept His willingness to bring His children in Purgatory unto Himself, through our profoundly small efforts. So…one must enter into this spiritual effort with the utmost of piety, humility and unspeakable awe. This spirit should follow you from the moment you enter the cemetery, to the moment you leave…and even for the rest of the day. This first week of November is truly blessed and rare in our journey through the Liturgical Year. And it changes you.

2 Signs in Babylon

There is a town on Long Island named Babylon. I was there last week and took photographs of these 2 signs…the top one at a grocery store called Aldi and the other at a doctor’s office. The contrast between them struck me. 2 signs in Babylon….or 2 mystical messages in a world defiant of God and nature? One was upon a door, the other invoking many doors. One confines the mind and one frees it. Signs hanging motionless, suspended in silence, preparing for war.

“seeing a problem is half of the problem.”

Laurie Anderson

September is the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows

Standing Mother

At the Foot of the Cross

O all you who walk by on the road

Attend and see

If there be any sorrow

Like my sorrow

+ + +

These tragic words are part of a prayer. Bouguereau’s dramatic painting “Pieta,” from 1876, is the perfect companion to these words. Receiving her son’s body into her arms, was the 6th of Our Lady’s 7 Sorrows, the swords which pierced her Immaculate Heart. We pay respect to these sorrows on the 15th of the month, exactly one month after the feast of the Assumption.

As if this was not enough, her heart continues to be grieved by our many sins and the 5 offenses represented by the 5 First Saturdays Devotion, given by Our Lady of Fatima. This devotion helps secure reparation to her Immaculate Heart.

We are celebrating 3 months in a row dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary. August honored the Immaculate Heart, we now honor her Sorrowful Heart and next month, we renew our devotion to her Holy Rosary, given to Saint Dominic. We can meditate on how these 3 months are linked together and in fact, inseparable. Let us take the next week to pray on and contemplate this (feel free to email me with any thoughts).

Here are the traditional Roman Catholic feasts of September: calefactory.org

Image from Cathy Weisbecker at Pinterest, colors have been muted.

August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

[Edited since posting.]

“Treasure of Kindness, Which Forever Lives and Never Dies”

When looking for images, I look for one that grabs me and is somewhat unique.  The vintage French prayer card above was perfect.  I realized I had to translate the French and this was my best attempt. The sentiment is beautiful and calls to mind the eternal bliss possessed by Our Lady and all those in Heaven.  This illustration of the Immaculate Heart contains many of the elements we normally see:  the lily emerging from the flame, the sword with the drops of blood, the wreath of roses and the emanating rays of light.  We also sometimes see the Crown of Thorns surrounding her heart in a circular fashion.  This month, we might meditate more deeply on the symbolism of Our Lady’s heart, passed down to us over the centuries.  We might also seek to conform our own hearts to hers, that we may be that “Treasure of Kindness” to those around us.

How else may we honor this most loving of hearts, inextricably united to the Sacred Heart?  It would certainly be an appropriate time to begin the Communion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart 5 First Saturdays, given to Sister Lucia by Our Lady of Fatima.  If your parish does not offer this, consider meeting with your pastor to discuss it.  What an exciting privilege to establish and lead this devotion in your own Catholic community!  The traditional feast of the Immaculate Heart is celebrated August 22nd, alongside the new feast of the Queenship of Mary.

Other Marian feasts this month are:  Our Lady of the Snows on the 5th, THE ASSUMPTION on the 15th and Our Lady of Knock, celebrated on the 17th or the 21st.  Saint Dominic, seer of the Holy Rosary, is honored on the 4th and Saint Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin, on the 16th.  What an amazing month to become closer to the Mother of God, to offer reparation to her Immaculate Heart and to console her in her sorrows, looking upon this world of corruption.

Let us remember the TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD on the 6th. August also celebrates 3 Doctors of the Church:  Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Saint Augustine.  We also have dear Saint Clare (otherwise known as Clara or Chiara-my name) on the 12th and Saint Rose of Lima, patroness of gardeners (we are especially devoted to her here), on the 30th.

As you may know, the Tridentine Latin Mass is being persecuted more aggressively in recent days in the United States.  Let us commend this sorrow to Our Lady and be at peace that God is provident and always holds His children in His Hands.  (I was going to give you some links, but it upset me so much, I could not continue reading-some dioceses most recently cracking down are Chicago, Washington DC and Arlington VA.)

Here is the traditional calendar for the month of August:  calefactory.org

Note:  Both old and new feasts are given.  The old is given preference when there are 2 dates.

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Image from Ethelyn at Pinterest.

June is the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Veni, Sancte Spiritus!

Fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love!

10 days after Ascension Thursday, the first Sunday of June, we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost or Whitsunday.  Many pray a novena between Ascension and Pentecost.  These 9 days actually were the origin of the novena itself.  It is wonderful to continue these Catholic traditions and teach them to the younger generation.

The first Marian feast of June is the new feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, which is always the day after Pentecost.  Let us commend Holy Church in all our difficulties to Our Lady at this time.  2 days later, we begin the Ember Days of Pentecost (or Summer).  These are days of prayer and penance for the coming season.  As things are heating up in the world on all fronts, prayer and penance is desperately needed.  The Ember Days also present an opportunity to teach children Catholic tradition in a fun way, incorporating crafts, artwork, etc.  This month gives us 4 Doctors of the Church:  Saint Ephrem of Syria, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Basil the Great and Saint Cyril of Alexandria.  One week after Pentecost, we have Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate all 3 Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

Not only do we honor Our Lord’s Sacred Heart in June, we also honor His Body in the feasts of Corpus Christi (trad) and the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (new).  On the 24th, we celebrate the Sacred Heart and on the 25th, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  So intimate are these 2 Hearts, that they cannot be separated.  (Keep in mind, the feast of the Sacred Heart is a solemnity, so no Friday penance is required.)  How may we reciprocate the incomprehensible love which emanates from the Sacred Heart of Jesus this month?  We may consider beginning the Nine First Fridays Devotion, given to Saint Margaret Mary by Our Lord Himself.  We may also consider making a good confession, contemplating how we have failed to love others adequately…or come up with your own ideas as a family!

In the age of chastisement upon us, let us flee to the Sacred Heart of Our Blessed Lord in all our sufferings and needs…

 “Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.”

From Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart prayer.

And let us never lose hope, for Our Lady of Fatima has promised an era of peace to come…

“Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church, assurance of freedom and immunity from harm.  Give peace and order to all nations and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry:  Praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation.  To It be glory and honor forever!”

From Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by Pope Pius XI.

But more importantly, Heaven is our true home where we will reside in eternal happiness with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Here is the traditional calendar for the month of June:  https://calefactory.org/calendar

Image from https://sahe.hwcdsb.ca

Traditional Priest is Doing Something Amazing in the Italian Alps!

Young Priest Turns Forsaken Farm into Paradise Homestead

I was blown away by the above video. Below are the notes provided by the video-maker, Kirsten Dirksen (she’s got a great YouTube channel, but this is not necessarily an endorsement of all her content). The video is 23 minutes, well-worth your time. We all need to be thinking this way going forward, due to the state of the world. This priest also has filmed 2 documentaries-link is below-I have not seen them yet, but I’m sure they are good…

Five years ago Catholic priest Johannes Schwarz left his parish to "withdraw for a few years" in the Italian Alps (in the shadow of his beloved Monte Viso). He bought an old "rustico" - stone farm building - for 20,000 euros and transformed it into his mountaintop hermitage.

Inspired by the early Christian desert hermits from the "200s and 300s when some people went into the deserts of Egypt and Palestine searching for a more rigorous life", Schwarz found something remote: he has only one full-time neighbor on the entire mountainside and in winter, he often has to snowshoe for a couple hours just to buy food and supplies.

To be as self-sufficient as possible, he makes his own bread and stores plenty of potatoes which he grows using Ruth Stout's "No-Work" gardening method. To grow much of his own fruit and produce, he terraced the steep hillside (using stones from the area) to create micro-climates. "You try to build walls that have southern exposure because they heat up during the day and they give off the warmth and can make a difference of several degrees." (Studies show differences of 27°F/15°C in the ultra-deep Incan terraces). He grows plenty of tomatoes inside his self-built recycled greenhouse.

For heating and cooking, he built a combination rocket stove and masonry heater by creating his own casts and loam coating. His refrigerator, which he transported up the hill on top of his bicycle, is kept in the unheated room, along with his food stores. He uses a tiny 30-year-old 3-kilogram washing machine and built his bathroom out of salvaged materials. To transport the lumber up the hill for his remodel, he got some help from a local farmer.

He divided the old barn into four small rooms on two floors; the living room/kitchen and pantry on the ground floor and a chapel and bedroom upstairs. His bedroom also serves as an editing studio where he creates videos on philosophy and religion.

He created a wooden-arched indoor chapel where he “celebrates the traditional Latin mass” alongside a wall he painted with Byzantine, romanesque and gothic styles in appreciation of "the symbolism of the ancient art."

Johannes’ pilgrimage films: https://www.reelhouse.org/birettballett

6th Day of Christmas

Six Days of Creation: Genesis 1

1 ~ “Be light made.”

2 ~ “Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters.”

3 ~ “Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear…Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind.”

4 ~ “Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night.”

5 ~ “Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth…And God created the great whales.”

6 ~ “Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth…And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness…male and female he created them.”

Hey, what about the song???

Partial artwork by Leah Smith from ncsundayschools

Thought for the Day

The universe does not revolve around me. A little disappointing. But mostly a huge relief. Actually, it’s very good news for the universe.

Just sayin.

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October is the Month of the Holy Rosary & Respect for Human Life

The month of October is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Rosary, given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic in the year 1214.  More recently, October has also been dedicated to the sanctity of human life, particularly the most vulnerable who have lost their rights in this post-Christendom society.  May the Lord have mercy upon us. 

As Catholics, the obvious practice for this month, would be the recitation of the Rosary for the intentions of the unborn and all others in danger (and the list is growing).  It is wonderful to take this opportunity as a family, perhaps praying it daily this month, to educate your children on life issues and show them from a young age, how precious every life is.  The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on the 7th and her Divine Maternity is celebrated on the 11th!  Here we can see a juxtaposition with these 2 dedications.  Of course, we also have the 40 Days for Life Fall 2021 Campaign, which began September 22nd and runs until the end of the month.  A common aspect of this international bi-annual campaign, is prayer at the abortion clinics.  Please consider taking part.

October begins by honoring Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the “Little Flower.”  She is the sole Doctor of the Church this month, an extraordinary achievement for one who passed from this life at the tender age of 24.  We also honor two 20th century popes.

This October ends with the traditional Feast of Christ the King, as the Triduum of Death begins on All Hallows Eve.  He is the great Victor over death!  Here are some of the notable feasts of this month…

10/1-First Friday / St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, author Story of A Soul

10/2-First Saturday / Holy Guardian Angels

10/3-St. Therese of Lisieux (trad) / Respect Life Sunday

10/4-St. Francis of Assisi, Founder Franciscans

10/5-St. Faustina Kowalska, Seer of the Divine Mercy

10/7-OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

10/11-DIVINE MATERNITY OF OUR LADY / Pope St. John XXIII, 20th Century Saint

10/16-St. Margaret Mary, Seer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

10/17-St. Margaret Mary (trad)

10/18-St. Luke, Evangelist

10/22-Pope St. John Paul II, 20th Century Saint

10/24-St. Raphael the Archangel

10/28-Sts. Simon & Jude, Apostles

10/31-FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING / All Hallows Eve

A personal note:  The day after my dear father-in-law passed last week, we were getting together his suit for the funeral home.  Someone found a beautiful pair of wooden Rosary beads to place in his hands, and put them on a desk.  I was worried they would be forgotten, so I took them and placed them around the hanger of his suit jacket.  At that point, I just broke up…the wake was this past Sunday…it was wonderful to see the beads in his hands and a peaceful look on his face, after so much suffering.  Above him, attached to the inner top of the casket, was a large Rosary made out of tiny red roses, the crucifix hanging above his head.  It was very dignified and very Catholic, just like him.  My mother-in-law and I prayed the Glorious Mysteries in the front row, before his body.  It was deeply consoling to meditate upon the Resurrection and the rest of the Mysteries.  It was also an intimate and precious moment with my mother-in-law, that I will always hold in my heart.  Such are the riches of the Most Holy Rosary, that Holy Church reminds us of this month.  It may seem a chore at times to pray it, but like confession, you come out of it feeling bright and much better for it.  I can say with certainty, that no one will ever regret praying the Holy Rosary!

Image courtesy www.catholicnewsagency.com