Still Here...

It really is pitiful how neglectful I've been of this blog.

In many ways, the lack of activity here mirrors what's been going on in my life outside the blogosphere.  It has been a very challenging year in so many ways, all connected to my children, and I have only survived it through the grace of God.  He carried all of us, at one time or another, on His sturdy shoulders because we would not have made it otherwise.

I've been in a bit of a spiritual rut, not totally of my own doing, and have found it difficult to carry out my usual devotions in any kind of meaningful way.   I trudge onward, hoping some of it "takes".  If nothing else, the sacrifice of giving up some meaningless pleasure to pray, even if distractedly, might be worth more than not making the attempt at all.

The other night, as I was falling asleep, I started to conjecture about something that really is none of my business.  I wanted to stop the thoughts I was having  but I didn't feel like I could until the voice said: "if you want to be worldly, fine; but if you want to win spiritually, you can only do so by filling your mind with things that are above this world. So knock it off already!"

It  was a much needed wake-up call.

Thank God the Lord doesn't give up on us.

Chaos

I opened  the paper today to all sorts of insanity,  not the least of which was news of a zoo in Georgia in the former Soviet Republic being deluged with flood waters and the animals escaping. Lions and tigers and bears plus a hippo and a crocodile "slithering its way down the street."   The Archbishop of St Paul had to resign over the sex abuse scandal and Archbishop Chaput just announced that 3 more church buildings in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will be closed as worship sites and sold for "profane use."   Two young men in their early 20's died as a result of a murder suicide yesterday.  Sharks are attacking people in waters where sharks aren't normally found.  Two hefty-sized women found cause to pommel each other in a Wal-Mart store in the shampoo aisle with the 6-year-old son of one of the women jumping in the fray.  The president declared June gay pride month and the world is gaga over a man in drag whose heavily air brushed photo appears on a heavily contrived and morally worthless rag.

It really does appear that the gates of Hell have sprung open. I wish I had Terry's sense of humor with which to point these things out but I don't. I just have the feeling God has seen enough of our act and is slowly bringing down the curtain.  I'm grateful for my conversion.  My husband laughed at me last week when I told him the end is near. I reminded him of how he will be begging to borrow one of my. blessed candles when the 3-days darkness arrives. OK no I didn't -  that reference was just to make Terry laugh. But it's true that I do believe we are seeing at least the start of the end times.  That doesn't mean I will necessarily live to see The End. The truth is that no one knows.  It's not something I willing to take lightly.

Last week I was sick with some dreck and woke up in the middle of the night convinced I would soon breathe my last.  That is truly how awful I felt. I said as sincere an Act of Contrition that I could manage and realized if God really did decide to take me that night I wasn't going anywhere near Heaven.  I recovered obviously but decided this episode was a good way to scare me to confession. I normally don't let 2 weeks go by without going.  I was creeping up on 3.  Padre Pio advised no less than once every 8 days. Sounds good to me.

Anyway... The End is closer than some people would like to believe.  God is out and abomination is in, in all its various forms and Lord knows we have no shortage of varieties in this world.  Confusion reigns, but isn't that the devil's specialty?

Like my confessor always says at the end of his advice to me:

Stick with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary and you can't go wrong.

Now, on a purely humorous note, I have concluded that women will spend a shorter time in Purgatory than men, because women spend a good deal of their earth there already.  What other reason could there be for hot flashes, those attacks that sneak up on you day and night and make you feel like you've just plunged your head into a brick oven?  

Somewhere I read that Hell is a combination of searing flames and bitterly cold water, so that there is no relief from the torture.  I have spent some time in such a place so I know God is letting me work off some of my temporal punishment now.  The so-called HVAC system is comprised of two temperatures - bitter cold air that suddenly blasts out of the vents and drops on you like a Polar ice cap,  immediately followed by a Saharan wind that comes blasting out of the same vents with no warning.  Forget about one consistent comfortable temperature.  

Work can be  Hell, and sometimes it is literally.  

Quit Messing With the Mass

I could not have said it better myself.  Story here

.https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7918

Someone asked me what I thought the problem is and my response is simply this: poor priestly formation.

And let me remind opponents of traditional sacred liturgy:  It is NOT the language, it is the FORM of the Mass, though certainly language does play a part in enabling abuse.

Someone posted a photo still from the "Passion of the Christ" and asked:  Would you clap and applaud at this sacrifice?  Then why would you think such behavior is permissible and acceptable at Holy Mass?

How quickly we forget what the Mass is and Who it centers upon.

Christ's Agony in the Garden: For Love of the Creature

"He would fain shake off this immense burden that crushes Him - He would fain free Himself of this horrible load which makes Him shudder - His own purity rejects it - the very glance of the avenging Father, Who abandons Him in these muddy, putrid waters of guilt with which He sees Himself covered - all of this rushes to His Spirit, urging Him to draw back from the bitter Passion.  The revulsion of His Divinity against sin  adds to the conflict within His human soul.  All instinct counsels that  He unburden Himself of these infamies, rejecting the very thought of them.  But the consideration of unvindicated justice and the unreconciled sinner predominates in His Heart full of love.  These two forces, these two loves, one more holy than the other, struggle for victory in the Heart of the Saviour.  Which will conquer?  Without doubt He wants to give victory to offended justice.  This gains all over all else and He wants this to triumph.  But what a spectacle must He represent?  That of a man soiled with the filth of humanity.  He, essential sanctity, to see Himself filthy with sin, even if only in outward appearance?  This, No!  This terrifies Him, makes Him tremble, crushes Him.

To find support in this terrible conflict, He gives Himself over to prayer.  Prostrate before the Majesty of His Father, He says:  "Father, take this chalice from Me!"  It is as if He said: My Father, I want  Thy glory, I want Thy justice to be fully satisfied.  I want the human family to be fully reconciled with Thee.  But that I, Who am sanctity itself, should see Myself defiled by sin, Ah!  Not this!  Take away, therefore, take away this chalice, and Thou to Whom all is possible, find in the infinite treasures of Thy Holy Wisdom another means.  But if Thou dost not  want this, "Not My will but Thine be done!"

Because I am such an ignoramus, I have so often overlooked or took for granted the cause of Christ's grief in the Garden.  There is a scene in Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" where the Devil appears and asks Jesus why He thinks he can take on the sins of the world, something no one has ever done.  Satan had a vested interest in Jesus refusing the Cup of Suffering His Father put before Him: Without the ultimate sacrifice, so many souls would fall into despair with no hope of eternal life. 

 Yes, I know Christ was innocence itself, but did I ever stop to think of how defiled He was because of our sins, my sins?  The Scourged Christ, so difficult to look upon, is disfigured by me.  The scourges are just an outward sign of the real wounds inflicted on the Son of God.   Who else will ever love me like this, enough to take on my ugliness, my festering sores oozing with the pus of immorality, blasphemy, neglect, hatred, jealousy, envy, sloth, and more?   I know this and yet it is so hard sometimes to carry the comparatively small crosses I am asked to shoulder.  

This Lent has been full of discouragement.  A priest who preached Therese with remarkable insight was suspended from the Archdiocese for downloading thousands of pornographic images on his computer.  The mother of one of my son's friends took her own life, leaving two teenagers to fend for themselves in this world.  She is the second such mother who has done this in the past year.  A police officer and father of two young boys murdered in a botched robbery attempt.  All those lives ruined.  I could go on, but I won't.  I can't.  It's overwhelming sometimes.  I am reminded of the words "blind faith".   I believe.  But without God's help, I cannot shoulder the load.  And I have no right to complain.  

If I can have one thing this Lent, I beg the Lord for the kind of love that will make me abhor sin because of the pain it causes Him. 

Christ's Agony in the Garden: Perfect Conformity to the Father's Will

"Jesus rises and turns His sad and suppliant glance to Heaven.  He raises His arms and prays.  My God, with what deadly pallor that face is suffused!  He prays to that Father Who seems to have turned away His glance and Who appears ready to strike Him with His sword of vengeance.  He prays with all the confidence of a Son, but He fully understands the position He holds.  He realizes that it is He alone, as a victim for the human race, Who bears the odium of having outraged the Divine Majesty.  He realizes that He alone through the sacrifice of His life can satisfy divine justice and reconcile the creature with the Creator.  He wants it, and wants is efficaciously.  But nature is crushed at the sight of His bitter Passion.  Nature revolts against the sacrifice.  But His spirit is ready for the immolation, and He continues the battle with all His strength.  He feels Himself cast down but He perseveres in the oblation of Himself.

My Jesus, how can we obtain strength from Thee, if we see Thee so weak and crushed?

Yes, I understand.  Thou hast taken all our weaknesses upon Thyself.  And to give us Thy strength Thou hast become the scape-got.  It is to teach us that we must place our trust only in Thee in the struggles of life, even when it seems as if Heaven were closed to us."

Christ's Agony in the Garden: Clothing Himself With the Sins of Humanity

"Jesus has returned to His place of prayer and another picture, more terrible than the first presents itself to Him.  All our sins with their entire ugliness parade before Him in every detail.  He sees all the meanness and the malice of creatures in committing them.  He knows to what extent these sins offend and outrage the Majesty of God.  He sees all infamies, immodesties, blasphemies which proceed from the lips of creatures accompanied by the malice of their hearts, and of those lips which were created to bring forth hymns of praise and benediction to the Creator.  He sees the sacrileges with which priests and the faithful defile themselves, not caring about those Sacraments instituted for our salvation as a means necessary for it; now, instead, made an occasion of sin and damnation of souls...

...Behold Him, before His Father the God of Justice, facing the full penalty of divine justice.  He, the essence of purity, sanctity by nature, in contact with sin! ...Indeed, as if He Himself had become a sinner.  Who can fathom the disgust that He feels in His innermost spirit?  The horror He feels?  The nausea, the contempt He senses so vividly?  And having taken all upon Himself, nothing excepted, He is crushed by this immense weight, oppressed, thrown down, prostrated.  Exhausted, He groans beneath the weight of divine justice, before His Father, Who has permitted His Son to offer Himself as a Victim for sin, as one accursed."

Christ's Agony in the Garden: Taking on the sins of the world

From St. Pio of Pietrelcina's Meditation on the Agony of Jesus.

"...He, the innocent Lamb, alone, thrown to the wolves, without any refuge...He, the Son of God...the Lamb dedicated voluntarily to be sacrificed for the glory of the same Father Who abandoned Him to the fury of the enemies of God, for the redemption of the human race; forsaken by those very disciples who shamefully flee from Him as from a most dangerous being. He, the Eternal Son of God, has become the laughing-stock of His enemies.

But, will he retreat?...No, from the very beginning He embraces everything without reservation.  Why then and whence this terror? Ah!  He has exposed His humanity as a target to take upon Himself all the blows of divine justice offended by sin.  

Vividly, He feels in His naked spirit all that He must suffer; every single sin He must expiate with each single pain, and He is crushed because He has given over His humanity as a prey to terror, weakness and fear."

Christ's Agony in the Garden: It Begins

"He is there to begin His dolorous Passion.  Instead of thinking of Himself, He is all anxiety, for you.

Oh, what an immensity of love does this Heart contain!  His face is covered with sadness and, at the same time, with love.  His words proceed from His innermost Heart.  He speaks with a profusion of affection, encouragement, comfort and in comforting gives His promise.  He explains the most profound mysteries of His Passion. 

...He is extremely sad; His soul is a prey of indescribable bitterness.  The night is advanced and bright. The moon shines in the sky, leaving shadows in the Garden.  It seems to throw a sinister brightness, a foreboding of the grave and dreadful events to come, which make the blood tremble and freeze in the veins - it seems as if stained with blood.  A wind, like a forerunner of the coming tempest agitates the olive trees and, together with the rustling of the leaves penetrates to the bones, like a messenger of death, descending into the soul and filling it with deadly grief.  

Night most horrible, like which there will never be another!

What a contrast O Jesus!  How beautiful was the night of Thy birth, when Angels, leaping for joy, announced peace, singing the Gloria.  And now, it seems to me, they surround Thee sadly, keeping at a respectful distance, as if respecting the supreme anguish of Thy spirit."  

The Agony of Jesus: Opening Prayer

By Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, from his meditation on Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

"Most Divine Spirit, enlighten and inflame in meditating on the Passion of Jesus, help me to penetrate this mystery of love and suffering of a God, Who, clothed with our humanity, suffers, agonizes and dies for love of the creature!...

The Eternal, the Immortal Who debases Himself to undergo an immense martyrdom, the ignominious death of the Cross, amidst insults, contempt and abuse, to save the creature which offended Him, and which wallows in the slime of sin. 

 Man rejoices in his sin and his God is sad because of sin, suffers, sweats blood, amidst terrible agony of spirit.

No, I cannot enter this wide ocean of love and pain unless Thou with Thy grace sustain me.

Oh that I could penetrate to the innermost recesses of the Heart of Jesus to read there the essence of His bitterness, which brought Him to the point of death in the Garden; that I could comfort Him in the abandonment by His Father and His own.  Oh that I could unite myself with Him in order to expiate with Him.

Mary, Mother of Sorrows, may I unite myself with Thee to follow Jesus and share His pains and Thy sufferings.

My Guardian Angel, guard my faculties and keep them recollected on Jesus suffering, so that they will not stray far from Him."

It seems to me this is a good meditation with which to begin any Lenten practice including the Stations of the Cross or the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.  From time to time during Lent, I will post short passages from this meditation with little or no comment from me.  

Christ's Agony in the Garden: A Meditation From St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Tomorrow being Septuagesima Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to think about what Lenten reflections to offer on the blog this year.  I have decided that as time permits, I will post brief excerpts from St.Padre Pio's  meditations on Christ's agony in the Garden.  I picked this up at Christmas and have been trying to read it during Friday Holy Hours.  I highly recommend it.   Here are two excerpts.

"He most clothe Himself with the this entire unclean mass of human corruption and present Himself before the Sanctity of His Father, to expiate everything with individual pains, to render Him all that glory of which they have robbed Him; to cleanse the human cesspool in which man wallows with contemptible indifference."

"But what a spectacle must He represent?  That of a man soiled with the filth of humanity.  He, essential sanctity, to see Himself filthy with sin, even if only in outward appearance?  This, No!  This terrifies Him, makes Him tremble, crushes 
Him."

-The Agony of Jesus:  A meditation on Our Lord's Agony in the Garden by Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM, Cap. (Available from Tan Books).

Resolve to Love Him More

A happy and blessed New Year in Our Lord to all of you!

I have been enjoying an unusual sense of peace during this Holy Season of Christmas.  It is my gift from the Savior.  It came to me during Adoration one day that instead of asking for individual favors, I should just ask for peace.  When you have that, you have everything.  When I rely on Him entirely, there is nothing to fear.  My immediate world has been falling down around me at times, but I simply walk through it, confident that God will see us through.

For awhile, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from the TLM.  I still love the Mass, but I think 12 Noon is too late for the principal Mass of the day.   I'm also not pleased that after more than a year in our current church building, we're still not permitted to burn incense and our access to the church is very restricted.  So, for the time being, I'm dividing my time on Sundays and Holy Days between the Maronite Rite and an early-morning Novus Ordo, followed by Adoration.  I have gone to the TLM at other churches and plan to continue to do so.  I also pray that our little congregation might finally have a home where the liturgy may be celebrated fully and where we are not subjected to the hostilities of small-minded people.

I don't know if it is because of my interior state or what the reason is, but the churches I have visited this year seem more exquisitely decorated for Christmas than I can ever remember.  The Maronite church in particular is one where you could literally sit all day in wonder at the beautiful Creche and adoring angels that kneel before the Blessed Sacrament.  I have taken great delight in decorating my own home this Christmas and as I was admiring my handiwork - my Carmelite shrine with St. Joseph - a voice reminded me that as lovely as all the scenes are, there is nothing more pleasing to the Infant King  than a soul adorned with His graces.  After all, isn't that the point?  So that is what I resolve to do in the coming year by more frequent reception of the sacraments, especially Reconciliation,  and hopefully a kinder, gentler more patient me.

God bless us everyone!

Blessed Christmastide to All!

Fire of Love

This being November, the month during which we remember the Holy Souls in a particular way, I have tried to make an effort to pray a little more than usual for their intention.  While I was putting aside a prayer book devoted to seven days of prayer for the dead, I came across a book written by St. Catherine of Genoa.  St. Catherine was a wife, nurse,  hospital administrator and a mystic.  She was given special insight into Purgatory.

When I was caught in the trap of pain a few weeks ago, I thought to myself that perhaps this was given to me as a temporal punishment to shorten my time in Purgatory.  Then I thought better of it and decided my time would be better spent not trying to read God's mind.  Nonetheless, I have been thinking a lot more about Purgatory and I highly recommend this book, Fire of Love.  Here is an excerpt, reprinted courtesy of EWTN.

"The souls in Purgatory are no longer in a state to acquire merit. How these souls look on the charity exercised for them in the world.

If the souls in Purgatory could purge themselves by contrition, they would

pay all their debt in one instant such blazing vehemence would their

contrition have in the clear light shed for them on the grievousness of

being hindered from reaching their end and the love of God.

Know surely that not the least farthing of payment is remitted to those

souls, for thus has it been determined by God's justice. So much for what

God does as for what the souls do, they can no longer choose for

themselves, nor can they see or will, save as God wills, for thus has it

been determined for them.

And if any alms be done them by those who are in the world to lessen the

time of their pain, they cannot turn with affection to contemplate the

deed, saving as it is weighed in the most just scales of the divine will.

They leave all in God's hands who pays Himself as His infinite goodness

pleases. If they could turn to contemplate the alms except as it is within

the divine will, there would be self in what they did and they would lose

sight of God's will, which would make a Hell for them. Therefore they await

immovably all that God gives them, whether pleasure and happiness or pain,

and never more can they turn their eyes back to themselves."

Back Among the Living

Sorry for the extended hiatus, loyal readers.  A pain I ignored for a few months decided it had enough and demanded all my attention, sending me to the ER and landing me in the hospital for a 4-night stay, requiring a trip to the OR as well.  Refractory pain that was unresponsive to an arsenal of powerful IV narcotics had me hallucinating by the time the decision was finally made.  A kidney stone the size of a black olive had lodged itself in a most inconvenient place and refused to budge.  Laser lithotripsy and the placement of a stent were, I thought, the end, but I was mistaken.  Another 10 days of discomfort that required narcotic pain medication to be able to function were ahead.

I thought a lot about St. Therese during the 4 long sleepless vigils I had, and how she said toward the end of her suffering that she could only look at the Virgin Mary and say the name "Jesus".  I'm not naive enough to think my suffering in any way compares to hers, but I developed a new understanding for her observation that she could well see how people who have no faith might be tempted to take their own lives.  I tried to pray the Rosary, but I couldn't.  So I had a holy card of the Immaculate Conception and one of St. Philomena that I taped to the bed rail.  And I continually offered up the pain for whatever intention the Lord saw best to which to apply it.

My roommate was also a very religious Christian woman, though not Catholic.  I tried my best not to disturb her and she did the same, but at times neither of us could suffer in silence.  So we took turns praying for and with one another.  On Sunday, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion came to visit me, while a coterie of friends from my roommate's church came to see her and pray with her. The pastor of my parish, where I feel I can no longer attend Mass, came to visit and offer a blessing.  I was gracious as I felt this was a very kind gesture and decided that while I can't attend the Masses he offers, I could stop complaining about him and the way he does things.

On discharge from the hospital, I was told that I had to follow up sooner rather than later with my primary care physician.  Apparently, the CT scan of the kidney unveiled a host of other issues that might be nothing at all but can't be risked to chance by ignoring them.  I spent an hour in an MRI tunnel last week, freezing from the chill but daring not to complain.  The results were inconclusive so a follow-up CT was ordered 3 months from now.  As I have often said, I am too cantankerous a person for cancer to even think about visiting, so I am not in the least concerned.  Nonetheless, I have kept this from my mother, who would surely give herself a nervous breakdown with worry over what is sure to be nothing.

I decided that God sent me this thorn because perhaps He wasn't happy about my constant grumbling about this situation or that not to my liking.  I decided that the intractable pain was a temporal punishment so that my days in Purgatory might be shortened.  At one point, I even had the audacity to point out to my sweet Jesus that His Passion took course over two days, including His Agony in the Garden and Good Friday.  "OK Lord, we're on day 4 here, what gives?  You know I don't have Your strength to endure as You did."   Somehow, by His Grace, I got through.

I decided some lifestyle changes are in order.  I can't run myself ragged anymore, racing from work to church, etc.  I know that the Eucharist is our greatest treasure on earth, but I have to content myself with going to Mass when I'm able and making the most of the times when I can get there.  I can't work five days a week anymore.  I am reducing my hours slightly and only committing to four days a week.  I can't be responsible for the short-comings of my co-workers or their lack of consideration for others or any of the other myriad of issues that had me running myself ragged there as well.  And I have to be more compliant about getting to the doctor more often and paying closer attention to my health.  There is enough in my life I can't control but no excuse to allow the things that I can change to go on and take their toll.

One of things I thought about most were those people who suffer in silence, ignored and forgotten.  I thought of all the people held hostage and tortured who have no way to relieve their pain.  It didn't ameliorate the agony any but it did help me to be grateful that I was at least in a hospital getting attention.  I thought of soldiers wounded in battle who lie in misery and filth for hours before they can be attended.  

I just learned that one of the friars at the shrine down the street from here had yet another orthopedic procedure to relieve the pain and deformity of rheumatoid arthritis.  Here is a person who has lived nearly his entire life in pain, and he never complains or seeks attention.  He views  his particular suffering in the same way St. Paul regarded his unknown "thorn in the flesh".  He reminds us that His Grace is sufficient for us.  Sometimes, it's easy to forget this.  But as St. Francis deSales noted, we should never let spiritual failure deter or discourage us.  Failure brings about humility.  God knows I need all I can get of that.

Richard Collins, Requiescat in Pace

LINEN ON THE HEDGEROW: REQUIESCAT IN PACE: It is with great personal sadness that we, the Collins Family, must inform the loyal followers of Linen on the Hedgerow, that our beauti...

If Loving God Makes You Weird, So Be It!

Working among the God-less people got a little more challenging this week.  After listening to an endless litany (from which there was no escape) about same-sex "marriage", sperm donors and religious weird people, I finally broke my silence and asked: How are you defining weird?  To which came the response: "Maybe I'd better drop this subject" to which I had to bite my tongue to refrain from saying: "Maybe you should never have started it in the first place."

My some-time spiritual director listened patiently as I recalled the situation for him.  He had one simple piece of advice:  Next time, tell them if loving God makes you a weirdo, so be it.

I know that such people are to be pitied, prayed for and not judged.  After all, I have quite a bit of my own baggage to haul that I don't need to take on anyone else's.  Sometimes, it's just so hard to resort to the Christian thing to do and pray for such people instead of battling the desire to debate them.  

I also have to remember to pray for their children.   There but for the grace of God...

Thank God For St. Therese

"Scarcely three minutes pass by without a loving thought of God."

For the rest of us, maybe not.  Maybe it's more like three hours, or worse, days.

Whenever I fall short of loving Jesus as I should, I thank Him for creating St. Therese.  I don't think that aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary I could find a heart more on fire with love for Him.

I don't call on my saintly little friend as much as I did at one time. These days,  I spread the petitions out a little more.  St. Joseph for this, St. Nicholas for that, the Blessed Mother for more than I can say.  I know St. Therese  does not feel neglected because, after all, she does what she does for love of Him.  Even her last words said as much.

"My God, I love You."

Meditations on the Glorious Mysteries

The following meditations are taken from St. Louis de Montfort and other traditions.  I apologize for not getting these up sooner but life is busy as ever.  It's more important that I pray than post but I will say this:  When I don't use these meditations I don't feel like I've prayed the Rosary at all.  To those of you who have written to say you have found this helpful, please know that is the reason I decided to post these in the first place, in the hope that it might help someone pray a more spiritually fruitful Rosary.

Also, to those who participated in our little Rosary Crusade last Sunday for persecuted Christians and hostages, thank you.  The point in praying at a specific time for a specific intention goes to St. Louis de Montfort's belief that when we pray the Rosary as a group, the spiritual benefit of each is multiplied and even if someone prays badly, they benefit from the prayers offered by the others.   Solidarity was lacking where I thought I might count on it, yet showed up in surprising places.  I continue to pray for this cause and know that many others do as well.

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES of THE HOLY ROSARY

The Resurrection

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Glorious Resurrection, and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy Most Holy Mother, we beg of Thee an ardent faith and hope in Heaven.

1.To recall His Glorious victory over sin and death
2 To honor the four glorious qualities of His Resurrected Body
3. To honor the power with which the stone was removed from the sepulcher
4.To honor the reunion of His Soul with His Resurrected Body
5. To honor His descent into Limbo to free the souls of the just
6. To honor the joy of the departed upon being lead into Heaven by Jesus
7. To honor His apparitions to His Mother and His disciples
8. To honor the meal He shared with His disciples
9. To recall the burial cloths rolled up in the tomb and what they signified to the disciples
10. To recall the joy of Mary Magdalene and the disciples to whom He appeared

May the grace of the Mystery of the Resurrection come down into our souls

The Ascension Into Heaven

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Glorious Ascension into Heaven, and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy Most Holy Mother, we beg of Thee an ardent desire for Heaven

1. To honor the reunion of His disciples on the Mount of Olives
2. To honor the promise that He would send the Advocate
3. To recall the power with which He ascended into Heaven
4. To honor the joy of the celestial court in receiving the Son of God
5. To honor the reunion of the Father and the Son
6. To honor the love between them, The Holy Spirit
7. To honor Jesus for taking His place at His Father's right hand
8. To honor His Second Coming in  Glory
9. To honor the Final Judgment, when He will recompense the Good and punish the Wicked
10.To honor the power given to Him by His Eternal Father

May the grace of the Mystery of the Ascension come down into our souls

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

1. To honor the cenacle of prayer kept by our Holy Mother and His disciples
2. To honor the great noise that heralded the arrival of the Holy Spirit
3. To honor the tongues of fire imparted to the disciples
4. To honor the gift of language bestowed on the disciples
5. To recall the Great Commission to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and feed the poor
6. To honor the gifts of the Holy Spirit
7. To honor the fruits of the Holy Spirit
8. To honor His Beloved Spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary
9. To honor His Victory over the three evils: the devil, the flesh and the world
10.To honor the Holy Trinity and the graces with which They endowed the Blessed Virgin Mary

May the grace of the Mystery of the Descent of the Holy Spirit come down into our souls.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of the glorious Assumption of Thy Most Holy Mother into Heaven and through this mystery and her intercession, we beg of thee an ardent devotion to her.

1. To honor her peaceful dormition
2. To honor the reunion of the disciples at her side
3. To honor her glorious Assumption into Heaven
4. To honor the joy with which the Holy Trinity received her into Heaven
5. To honor Mary's joy at being reunited with Jesus
6. To honor her Immaculate Conception
7. To honor her Fruitful Virginity
8. To honor her Divine Maternity
9. To honor her painless childbirth and delivery
10.To honor her profound humility and uncompromising fidelity to God's Will

May the grace of the Mystery of the Assumption of the BVM come down into our souls

The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of the Coronation of Thy Most Holy Mother as Queen of Heaven and Earth and through her intercession we beg of Thee the grace of perseverance,

1. To honor her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth
2. To honor the Queen of the Angels
3. To honor the Queen of Peace
4. To honor Our Lady of Mt Carmel
5. To honor Our Lady of Lourdes
6. To honor Our Lady Help of Christians
7. To honor Our Mother of Good Counsel
8. To honor Our Lady of Perpetual Help
9. To honor the Mediatrix of all graces
10. To honor Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, whose spotless womb was the first tabernacle

May the grace of the Mystery of the Coronation of the BVM come down into our souls

Rosary Crusade for Persecuted Christians and Hostages

I would like to propose an online "Rosary Crusade" on Sunday, September 14, the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross.  We will pray to Our Lady, Queen of Peace and Mother of Captives,  for persecuted Christians throughout the world and especially in Iraq, and for all those held hostage by  ISIS and other violent groups. Wherever you are in the world, you can join in at 3 PM, EST.  Would you please spread the word on your own blogs and other social media outlets?

I will see what I can do to get a local priest to have a Holy Hour so we can pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  Maybe those of you who are so inclined could try to do the same.

As more and more is revealed about the Islamic State, it is clear to me that Hell has literally broken loose. Unfortunately, we have a president who is more interested in expanding abortion and contraception than he is in containing evil.   Whether the Islamic State is a threat to the US or not, it is certainly an evil that threatens scores of innocent people.  We should no more stand by and watch passively than we did when Hitler roared through Europe.

The Sorrowful Mysteries

I apologize for being slow to getting to these mystery meditations.  Finding an available computer is a challenge.

The following are meditations based on St. Louis de Montfort's method of praying the Rosary as well as other traditions.

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Agony in the Garden, and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, we beg of Thee true contrition for our sins.

1. The loneliness of Christ's soul throughout His ministry and especially that night in the garden
2. The consolation He desired from an angel
3. The long vigils of prayer He kept with His Father and especially that night in the garden
4. His admonishment to Peter, James and John: "Could you not stay awake with Me one hour?"
5. The sweat that poured down His face like blood
6/ His resignation to His Father's Will
7. His betrayal by Judas
8. Peter's denial of Him
9. The abandonment of Jesus by His apostles
10 His arrest and captivity by the hands of the Jews

THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Scourging at the Pillar and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, we beg of Thee and the grace to perfectly mortify our senses.

1. Christ stripped of His clothing
2. The outrage that the Son of God, innocent of innocents, sentenced to being scourged
3. The humiliation at the pillar
4. Christ's submission to His barbaric tormentors
5. The anguish He suffered from the scourges
6. His sacred flesh rent by the scourges
7. His Precious Blood falling to the ground uncared for
8. To honor Christ being tied to the pillar and given twice the usual number of lashes
9.  The heartbreak of His Holy Mother, bearing witness to His torment
10. Christ's collapse to the ground in His own Blood

JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Crowning with Thorns and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, we beg of Thee contempt for things of this world

1. The Crown of Thorns
2. Christ's silence and gentleness towards His tormenters
3. His Sacred Head
4. The wounds imparted by the thorns
5. Christ being made to wear the purple cloak
6. Christ struck with a reed
7. Christ mocked as King of the Jews
8. Christ blindfolded and spat upon
9. The derision of which the Son of God was made the object
10.His sacred face buffeted by blows

JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Carrying of the Cross, and through this mystery and the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother we beg of Thee the gift of perseverance to patiently carry our crosses.

1. Christ condemned to die
2. Christ rejected by the crowd in favor of  Barrabas
3. Christ's embrace of His cross
4, Christ's journey to Calvary
5. His extreme weakness in carrying the cross
6. His three falls beneath the weight of the cross
7. His sorrowful meeting with His mother
8. His words to the weeping women of Jerusalem
9. The assistance rendered to Him by the Cyrenian
10. The veil of Veronica upon which He left His image

THE CRUCIFIXION

We offer Thee Lord Jesus this decade in honor of Thy Crucifixion, and we beg of Thee through this mystery and the intercession of Thy Most Holy Mother the grace to accept and worthily die whatever death Thou has destined for us.

1. Jesus stripped of His clothing
2. The barbaric way in which He is thrown on the cross
3. The wounds imparted by the nails
4. Christ's 3-hour agony once the cross is raised
5. His thirst for the salvation of souls
6. The mystery of the Son of God crucified between 2 common thieves
7. Christ's promise to the Repentant Thief
8. The gift of His Holy Mother to St. John and to all mankind
9. His last seven words
10. The spear that opened His side and the Blood and Water that flowed out.