"Those in the Church who perform the function of prayer and continual penance, contribute to the growth of the Church and the salvation of the human race to a greater degree than those who cultivate the Lord's field by their activity; for, if they did not draw down from heaven an abundance of divine grace to irrigate the field, the evangelical workers would certainly receive less fruit from their labors (Pius XI: Umbratilem).

They take the stone and close up in the holy sepulchre the body of Jesus, that great treasure, greater than any in heaven and on earth. And here let us remark, that Mary left her heart buried with Jesus, because Jesus was all her treasure.

And where shall we keep our hearts buried? With creatures? In the mire? And why not with Jesus, Who, although He has ascended to heaven, has wished to remain, not dead but alive, in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, precisely in order that He might have our company and possess our hearts?

St Alphonsus de Liguori. The Holy Rosary through the Writings of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (p. 96 Kindle Edition)

Prayer is a royal gate through which the soul enters into the heart of God; a foretaste of the glory to come.

-Venerable Louis of Granada

Anne de Gaulle was the youngest daughter of General Charles de Gaulle.

She was born in Trier, Germany, where her father was stationed with the Army of Occupation in the Rhineland.

She was born with Down Syndrome and in a time where disabled children were sent to institutions, she lived with her family until her death.There was one sacred rule in the de Gaulle household: Anne was never to be made to feel different or less than anyone else. Charles de Gaulle was noted for his reserve and even with family members he was usually not very demonstrative. Not so with his daughter Anne, who received a warmth that he had seemed to be storing for his entire life just for her. He would entertain her with songs, dances, and pantomimes, he would often act as a child himself for her joy. One Colombey resident recalled how he used to walk with her hand-in-hand around the property, caressing her and talking quietly about the things she understood. She was, he said simply, "My joy. She helped me overcome the failings in all men, and to look beyond them".

In 1948, Anne succumbed to pneumonia, a month after her 20th birthday and died in her father's arms. Upon her death, weeping, her father said: "Now, she's like the others."

On 22 August 1962, Charles de Gaulle was the victim of an attempted assassination at Petit-Clamart. He later said that the potentially fatal bullet had been stopped by the frame of the photograph of Anne that he always carried with him, placed this particular day on the rear shelf of his car.

When he died on November 9th 1970, he was buried in the cemetery of Colombey beside his beloved daughter.

She could only utter one word clearly in her entire life: "Papa"

@CatholicArena

I encourage you, whether by the Rosary or any other form of mental prayer, to meditate today upon the passion and death of our crucified Lord:

https://youtu.be/nFCoggbi9-c

Meditations on the Second Glorious Mystery of the Holy Rosary (The Ascension)

St Thomas Aquinas in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4 and in the Summa Theologiae (Supplement, Q. 88, art. 2), notes that the primitive Church expected an imminent return, but that this expectation was not an article of faith, only a pious opinion. He says the apostles preached the Second Coming as near to stir up fervor, not to fix a date.

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

St. John Chrysostom acknowledges that many in the first century thought Christ would return in their lifetime, but explains that the delay is due to God’s mercy (Homilies on Matthew, Homily 77).

St. Augustine in Letter 199 (to Hesychius), explicitly discusses the widespread early belief that Christ would return soon. He says the apostles themselves at first expected it in their lifetime, but later understood that “soon” is from God’s perspective (citing 2 Peter 3:8: “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years”).

Amongst the three persons of the Trinity, there is none who is before or after any other, for they are coeternal. Neither is there anyone who is greater or less than the others, for they are equal in all things and coequal in perfection. Nevertheless, they differ in those characteristics which constitute their unconfused personhood. For the Father is unbegotten, and has no origin. The Son is begotten of the Father, as light from light, and true God from true God. The Holy Spirit is not created, nor is He begotten, but proceeds equally from both the unbegotten Father and the only-begotten Son.

-St Albert the Great The Paradise of the Soul

Happy feast day of the Immaculate Conception! Holy Mary, pray for our souls!

Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431 AD):

“Rejoice with us, Mary Theotokos, the venerable treasure of the whole world, the INEXTINGUISHABLE LAMP, the crown of virginity, the sceptre of orthodoxy, the INDESTRUCTIBLE TEMPLE, the CONTAINER OF THE UNCONTAINABLE, the Mother and Virgin, through whom in the holy gospels is called blessed ‘he who comes in the name of the Lord’.”

Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (680 AD):

“We confess… the Only-Begotten Son… Who emptied Himself in willful humility in the womb of the IMMACULATE (achrantou) virgin and THEOTOKOS Mary, after she was PREPURIFIED (prokathartheisês) with respect to SOUL AND BODY. He made his dwelling via the Holy Spirit and from her holy and blameless flesh (ek tês hagias kai amômou sarkos autês).

St Padre Pio, pray for us! 🙏

23 de diciembre: “O EMMANUEL”

Oh Emmanuel, rey y legislador nuestro,
esperanza de las naciones y salvador de los pueblos:
ven a salvarnos, Señor Dios nuestro.

Antífona cantada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4ZkVqooLs&list=PLuIkgdpEET3Hw2kWNduRvG59DlHO9HaXH&index=1

Meditación sobre esta antífona: https://youtu.be/YfAQHtkowYI

________________

23. December: “O EMMANUEL”

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Sung antiphon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4ZkVqooLs&list=PLuIkgdpEET3Hw2kWNduRvG59DlHO9HaXH&index=1

Meditation on this antiphon: https://en.elijamission.net/?p=14575&preview=true

“The extremities of the earth, and all in every part of it who purely and rightly confess the Lord look directly towards the most holy Roman Church and its confession and faith, as it were to a sun of unfailing light, awaiting from it the bright radiance of the sacred dogmas of our Fathers according to what the six inspired and holy councils have purely and piously decreed, declaring most expressly the symbol of faith. For from the coming down of the incarnate Word amongst us, all the Churches in every part of the world have held that greatest Church as their base and foundation, seeing that according to the promise of Christ our Saviour, the gates of hell do never prevail against it, that it has the keys of a right confession and faith in Him, that it opens the true and ONLY RELIGION to such as approach with piety, and shuts up and locks every heretical mouth that speaks injustice against the Most High.”

- Holy Martyr and Father St. Maximus the Confessor, 649 AD

Prideful souls, lacking both gratitude and wonder, waste their time with mindless distraction after mindless distraction, filling the vacuum that their mindlessness has created with whatever trash and trivia that their fingers or thumbs can deliver on the gadgets to which they are chained. For such people, these gadgets have become godgets, pathetic and petty gods which command their attention and rule and ruin their lives. Such people spend much more time with their godgets than with their God.

-Joseph Pearce (Foreword to From Silence to Silence)

"The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul."

St John of the Cross, "Sayings of Light and Love," no. 100, in The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, trans.
Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington: Institute of Carmelite Studies,
1991), 92.

The Wonders of the Holy Name of Jesus

Everyone without exception can invoke this Holy Name hundreds of times a day, not only for his own intentions, but also to ask God to deliver the world from impending
ruin.

It is amazing what one person who prays can do to save his country and save society. We read in Holy Scripture how Moses saved by his prayer the people of Israel from destruction, and how one pious woman, Judith of Bethulia, saved her city and her people when the rulers were in despair and about to surrender themselves to their enemies.

Again, we know that the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, which God destroyed by fire for their sins and crimes, would have been pardoned had there been only ten
good men to pray for them.


Source: The Wonders of the Holy Name by Fr Paul O'Sullivan, O.P.
(Tan Books)

He is now associated with 30,000 miracles

'Ever since Israel had been delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, after the firstborn of the Egyptians had been slain, the firstborn of the Jews had always been looked upon as one
dedicated to God.

Forty days after His birth, which was the appointed time for a male
child according to the Law, Jesus was brought to the temple. Exodus decreed that the firstborn belonged to God.

In the Book of Numbers, the tribe of Levi was set apart for
the priestly function, and this priestly dedication was understood as a substitute for the
sacrifice of the firstborn, a rite which was never practiced.

But when the Divine Child
was taken to the temple by Mary, the law of the consecration of the firstborn was observed in its fullness; for this Child’s dedication to the Father was absolute, and would
lead Him to the Cross'

Fulton Sheen

@CatholicArena