August is Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

~~~ immaculate heart of mary, pray for us! ~~~

Whatever our difficulties and sorrows may be, we have been given, by Our Lord Himself from the Cross, the most wonderful of Mothers! Let us this month, flee to her in all our need and honor her Most Immaculate Heart, so desiring of reparation. This is a fabulous time to start the “Communion of Reparation 5 First Saturdays,” instituted by Our Lady of Fatima. The feast of the Immaculate Heart is celebrated on the 22nd, along with the Queenship of Our Lady-what a beautiful double Marian feast! Of course, we also have the Assumption, a holy day of obligation, on the 15th, along with several other feasts of Our Lady this month. August gives us 3 saints with particular love for Mary: Saints Alphonsus, Dominic and Maximilian Kolbe. In addition, we celebrate the father of the Blessed Virgin, the day after the Assumption. Let us not forget the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the 4th Luminous Mystery, on the 6th.

We honor both Saint Teresa Benedicta and Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who met their deaths at Aushwitz, Kolbe one year earlier. We also have Saint Rose of Lima and Saint Fiacre, both patrons of gardeners on the 30th!

We have spent the past year giving the titles (names attributed to them) of all 35 Doctors of the Church. We will now begin to provide one of their best-known works with each noted feastday. This month, we honor 3 of the most superlative Doctors! Saint Alphonsus has been noted as the most popular writer of all time (including Shakespeare)…Saint Bernard is quite possibly the most prolific miracle-worker of all time…and Saint Augustine has been called the “Doctor of Doctors,” his Confessions being the most widely read spiritual book for 1,000 years.*

Here are some notable feasts this month from both the old and new calendars:

8/1-St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church, Founder of the Redemptorists, author The Glories of Mary

8/2-St. Alphonsus Liguori (trad)

8/4-St. John Vianney / St. Dominic, Seer of the Holy Rosary

8/5-OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS

8/6-First Friday / TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD

8/7-First Saturday

8/8-St. John Vianney (trad) / St. Dominic (new)

8/9-St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Jewish convert, killed at Aushwitz

8/11-St. Clare (Chiara) of Assisi

8/12-St. Clare (Chiara) of Assisi (trad)

8/14-St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyred at Aushwitz / VIGIL OF THE ASSUMPTION

8/15-THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (Holy Day of Obligation)

8/16-St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin

8/17-OUR LADY OF KNOCK

8/20-St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, author Canticle of Canticles

8/21-St. Pius X, Pope of the Eucharist

8/22-QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY / IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

8/23-St. Rose of Lima, Patroness of Gardeners

8/24-St. Bartholomew, Apostle

8/27-St. Monica, Mother of St. Augustine / SEVEN JOYS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (non-standard)

8/28-St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church, author Confessions

8/29-Passion of St. John the Baptist

8/30-St. Rose of Lima (trad) / St. Fiacre of Brie, Patron of Gardeners (non-standard)

* Source: The 35 Doctors of the Church Buy it!

Image courtesy acatholiclife.blogspot.com

August: Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

~ Our Lady of Fatima ~

In this month of the Immaculate Heart, we begin on the 1st, with the First Saturday, which is a devotion in reparation to this very Heart. What a great time to begin the “Communion of Reparation,” given to us by Our Lady of Fatima. If your church is not doing this, why not help them start it? Otherwise, you can look at: First Saturdays At Home. Regarding Marian-related feasts, we have St. Alphonsus Liguori (famously authored The Glories of Mary) also beginning the month…..St. Dominic, the Assumption, St. Joachim (he is honored together with Our Lady immediately following the Assumption) and a double Marian feast on the 22nd, which includes the trad feast of the Immaculate Heart. We also have another saint devoted to Mary, St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died on the Vigil of the Assumption. He was starved at Auschwitz, but would not die, so he was given a lethal injection. How appropriate a day to die for one who early in life, created a Marian apostolate, “Militia Immaculatae.” I have noticed something in my research that I have not seen mentioned anywhere…he started the apostolate in 1917, just 3 days after the “Miracle of the Sun,” witnessed by thousands at Fatima. I wonder if that great event spurred him on to create his ministry. Let us give honor and reparation to Our Mother’s dear heart this month. There are so many ways to do this-please find something that resonates for you and your family.

This month shows us 3 Doctors of the Church and also the Transfiguration of Our Lord. These are just some highlights of Holy Church’s month of August. Its always good to look at the coming weeks to plan your spiritual life…..

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1-First Saturday / St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor, ”Prince of Moralists, Most Zealous Doctor, Patron of Confessors & Moral Theologians” (new)

2-St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor (trad)

4-St. John Vianney (new-I saw his heart once!) / St. Dominic, Seer of the Holy Rosary

6-TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD

7-First Friday

8-St. John Vianney (trad)

11-St. Clare of Assisi, her actual name was Chiara (my name-I am named after my grandmother who was born in Sicily), also known as Clara (new)

12-St. Clare of Assisi (trad)

14-Vigil of Assumption / St. Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity under Hitler

15-ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (not a holy day of obligation this year in the US)

16-St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary

20-St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor, ”The Mellifluous Doctor, Oracle of the 12th Century, Thaumaturgus of the West, Arbiter of Christendom, Last of the Fathers”

22-Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Immaculate Heart of Mary

24-St. Bartholomew, Apostle

28-St. Augustine, Doctor, ”Doctor of Grace, Doctor of Doctors”

This blog gives old and new feasts. The titles of the Doctors of the Church are taken from The 35 Doctors of the Church,TAN Books.

Back-to-Back Feasts of the Two Hearts!

Today, Friday, is the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus…and tomorrow, Saturday, is the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Sacred Heart is both a new and old feast and the Immaculate Heart is new. Holy Church calls us to honor our Two Hearts together at this time. Please note, today is a Solemnity.

What a wonderful weekend in the Church, though we must see everything from now on through the veil of our tears, to interpret it all through the lens of the present chastisement. These Two Great Loves have been forsaken.

“Behold this Heart, which, notwithstanding the burning love for man with which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from the generality of Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude.”

The above words were given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the year 1690, along with the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us strive to make reparation today and always, to His most loving Heart, for all the offenses against It in our own times, even within the Church. Of course, the internet is rife with devotions to the Sacred Heart-no problem finding ideas! Litanies are so beautiful to pray with your family. Here is the Litany of the Sacred Heart (and also the Litany of the Immaculate Heart).

From The Daily Missal:

“The Feast of the Sacred Heart was established in order that the faithful might honour with more devotion and zeal, under the symbol of the Sacred Heart, the love of Jesus Christ, which induced Him not only to suffer and to die for the redemption of mankind, but also to institute the Sacrament of His Body and Blood in commemoration of His death.”

From the trad Mass:

O God, who in the Heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost mercifully bestow on us infinite treasures of Love: grant, we beseech Thee, that whilst we render It the devout homage of our affection, we may also fulfill our duty of worthy satisfaction.

Alleluia, alleluia. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. Alleluia.

Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Alleluia.

As a member of the World Apostolate of Fatima (otherwise known as the Blue Army), one is to recite the following prayer every morning, which invokes the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

Fatima Morning Offering

O my God in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day. O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can, and I offer them together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that she may best apply them to the interests of Thy Most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

The Five First Saturdays are a devotion given to us by Our Lady of Fatima, for reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Please see First Saturdays At Home-Never More Important! Please also consider performing our June Fatima Family Holy Hour for the Church today (scroll down). Contact us above to let us know how your family enjoyed it!

If you are from FishEaters Forum, the canon lawyer agreed with me about my prayers being fine to publish on this blog and also the issue regarding private/public prayer-contact me for her response and please consider defending me from the harassment I received-my sincere thanks.

Image courtesy http://amazingcatechists.com

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

In my last post, I mentioned yesterday's feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but I forgot to mention that it is followed (in the new calendar) by the Immaculate Heart of Mary!  How great to have these two wonderful back-to-back feasts.  Here is the closing prayer of the Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

O most merciful God, Who, for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the miserable, wast pleased that the Most Pure Heart of Mary should be most like in charity and pity to the Divine Heart of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, grant that we who commemorate this sweet and loving Heart may, by the merits and intercession of the same Blessed Virgin, merit to be found like to the Heart of Jesus, through the same Christ Our Lord.  Amen.

(John Henry Cardinal Newman)