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Do
you know the first Saturdays in honour of the Rosary?
Our
Lady of the Rosary (during an apparition) at Fatima,
Portugal on June 13, 1917 made this agreement:
"I
promise at the hour of death, to help, with the
graces needed for their salvation, whoever on the
first Saturday) of five consecutive months, shall
confess and receive Holy Communion, recite five
decades of the Rosary, and keep me) company for
fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen)
mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making
reparation to me."
We
are further encouraged to sanctify every first Saturday
by a Communion of reparation, preparatory prayer (especially
the rosary), and some sacrifice made for the same
intention.
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Editorial
"The
more the Holy Ghost finds Mary, His dear and inseparable
spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes
in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in
Jesus Christ" (st. Louis de Montfort) We ascribe our
sanctification to the action of the Holy Ghost, and we ascribe
all the graces which lead to our sanctification to the mediation
of our Blessed Mother.
The
greatest honour of our Lady is that she gave flesh to Jesus
Christ. As Mother of God she brought Jesus into the world.
This she did once within herself, but we may say that she
continues to bring Christ into the world through our flesh,
by conforming us to her divine Son. If we sincerely love
the Blessed Virgin, she will pour the gifts of the Holy
Ghost into our souls. We will be changed, not only by the
slow reform of our natural habits into virtues, but by the
immediate infusion of supernatural virtues into our souls.
We will share in the very life of Christ, which is sanctifying
grace.
So
let us fill ourselves with devotion to Mary, for then the
Holy Ghost will come and dwell in our souls with the sevenfold
gifts of grace. May He sanctify us all. Please, in your
prayers to our Lady, remember the priests and deacons who
will be ordained in the Society of St. Pius X, at the end
of this month, and myself among them.
United
to you in devotion to the Blessed Virgin, I am,
Rev.
Mr. Herkel
Decent
of the Holy Ghost
[The
following parallelism, between Mary, Mother of God, and
the Church, Mother of the Christian, abridged from the last
work of Mgr. Gaume, Traite du Saint Esprit, appears
to us so comprehensive, and so admirably adapted to the
solemnity of Pentecost and to our epoch that we cannot refrain
from assuring our readers, in advance, that ft will richly
repay them for an attentive perusal.]
The
detailed history of Pentecost shows the that the foundation
of the Church, as well as, the creation of Mary, is the
chef-d'oeuvre of the Holy Ghost Between these two
marvels there are striking analogies which we shall now
indicate. Mary is filled with all the gifts of the Holy
Ghost: as an immortal diadem, they adorn her virginal head.
This description equally applies to the Church. The Holy
Ghost pours forth His gifts not with measure, but according
to the capacity of the vessels presented. As the immediate
creation of the Holy Ghost, Mary's capacity is complete,
and, for the same reason, the capacity of the Church is
complete. Hence, in Mary is the fullness of the gifts of
the Holy Ghost; plenitude of all the interior gifts; plenitude
of the gifts of Wisdom and Understanding, plenitude of the
gifts of Counsel and Knowledge, plenitude of the gifts of
Piety and Fortitude, and of the Fear of the Lord; plenitude
of all the exterior gifts, the gifts of miracles, healing,
prophecy, and of tongues.
History
proves that all the gifts which are communicated to the
august Mother of the Son, are given, by the Holy Ghost,
to the Mother of Christians. Today, Heaven and earth can
say to the Church what the angel said to Mary: "Hail
full of grace;" the Lord is with thee; blessed art
thou among all societies; the holy ones to whom thou wilt
give birth, shall be called the children of God. Doubt it
not. See how the virtue of the Most High envelopes thee
with His shadow, and with what magnificence the Holy Ghost
descends upon thee.
Conqueror
of the King of the City of Sin, the Word Incarnate accomplishes
His promise. He ascended on high, conducting in His triumph
the demons in chains, and their captives gloriously restored
to liberty. After the example of the ancient conquerors,
He today distributes His gifts. From His divine hands are
poured forth upon you, not talents of gold, nor mines of
silver, but the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and, among them,
the gift of tongues. Thanks to this new gift the Jew, in
becoming Thy son and speaking his maternal idiom, sounds
in the ears of all nations the glories of the Word, and
the Romans adore Him whom one of their proconsuls, Pilate,
condemned to the death of the cross....
As
the Holy Spirit is ever united to Mary; so is He ever united
to the Church. Formed in the Cenacle, the Mother of Christians
appears full of life on the day of Pentecost. She lives
since she possesses the principle of her movement, the Holy
Ghost, who manifests Himself by the acts reserved for Himself
alone. "On the day of Pentecost," says St. Augustine,
"the Holy Ghost descended as a sanctifying shower upon
the Apostles, His living temples. He is not a passing visitor,
but a perpetual consoler, an eternal resident." The
Word Incarnate said of Himself to His Apostles: "I
am with you all days, even to the end of the world."
He said the same of the Holy Spirit: 'The Paraclete that
My Father will send, will remain forever with you."
He was then present to the faithful, not by the mere favor
of His visits and His operations, but by the presence of
His Majesty. These vessels received not only the odor of
the balm, but the balm itself, in order that its perfume
might fill the entire world, rendering the Disciples and
Apostles capable of the life of God itself, and participants
of His nature.
The
Holy Ghost dwelt with Mary in order to protect, inspire,
and direct her; in other words, to preserve her until the
end, full of grace and the unique type of moral beauty.
Without the protection of the Holy Ghost, how could Mary,
poor and delicate, have escaped with her young Babe, from
the fury of Herod? In the infancy of the Church, the race
of Herod had also sworn its death. Three bloody weapons
were in the hands of its enemies; persecution, heresy and
scandal. These weapons will ever find arms to wield them;
but they will ever be opposed by supernatural strength,
wisdom and constancy; the triple cuirass with which the
Holy Ghost invested the Church.
The
Divine Spirit inspired Mary, and He inspires the Church.
On account of the sublimity of her prophetic chant, Mary
is called the Queen of Prophets. If among the prophets,
inspiration was a living stream, in Mary it was a torrent,
a mighty sea. It is the same in the Church. The spirit of
wisdom, which in the mouth of children or peasants astonished
the Roman Governors by the admirable and sublime simplicity
of its responses, is expressed in the assemblies of the
Church by the Pontiffs, with a lucidity which disconcerts
error and with an authority, unknown before the Pentecost.
In
early days grave questions arise and call forth in council
the fishermen of Galilee. Theologians of the first order,
and therefore eminent philosophers, they discuss the most
difficult points with a depth of reasoning which silences
the wisdom and learning of the senate, and when the debate
is ended, the council sends its decision to the faithful
of the East and of the West, in a form of which no human
assembly had ever dreamed: "It hath seemed good to
the Holy Ghost and to us". Human understanding is placed
on the same level with divine understanding. Man divides
with God the doctrinal infallibility and judicial power.
If this is not sublime, we know not what sublimity means.
This deification of man by the Holy Ghost never ceased in
the Church. The same divine assurance pervades through all
general councils. - The Holy Ghost not only inspires the
words of Mary, but directs all her steps. From Nazareth
He leads her to Bethlehem; from Bethlehem to Egypt; from
Egypt to Galilee, to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to the Cenacle.
His action upon the Church is the same through all ages.
The
guidance of the Holy Ghost which is found in the lives of
the Apostles, has never abandoned the Church. From the creation,
infinite wisdom guides the sun, as by the hand, daily indicating
to him the places to which he must bear his light. So from
the evangelical regeneration, the Holy Ghost directs the
Church, the sun of the moral world, marking for it with
precision, the nations and souls it must visit or abandon.
To this guiding action, we must attribute the passage of
faith from one nation to another; the conversion of the
people of the North at the time of the Eastern schism; the
discovery of America forty years after the renaissance
of Paganism in Europe.
We
terminate this parallel between Mary and the Church, by
another trait no less touching. We have noticed the similarity
which exists in their fruitful virginity, but the resemblance
is still stronger in their maternal love. Mother of the
Word Incarnate, Mary nourished her Son with her virginal
milk. She surrounded Him with the most tender cares, bestowing
on Him the most affectionate caresses, shielding Him from
dangers, sharing His sorrow; and not leaving Him even at
the hour of His death.
The
Church, mother of the Christian, nourishes him with the
virginal milk of her doctrine. Not an error, not the shadow
of an error, does she permit to enter the understanding,
formed for truth and nothing but the truth. With jealous
solicitude this mother incessantly watches over the food
of her children. She carefully withdraws from them all tainted
viands; and defends her young with all the courage of a
lioness. She hurls her anathemas and menaces against all
assassinating Herods. Happy the Christians who have always
understood the heart of their mother.
Not
only did Mary love her Son, but she loved all those whom
He loved. Her love knew no inconstancy, nor coldness, nor
limits of time, place or persons. Such is the love of Mary.
In showing to all ages Jesus nailed to the cross, Mary can
say, "I have loved the world even to sacrificing for
it my only Son."
Mother
of the Christian, the Church has the right to use the same
language. From every part of the globe, which is, for her,
and immense Calvary, she shows the crosses, the scaffolds,
the cauldrons of boiling oil, the instruments of torture,
the wild beasts of the amphitheaters, and all the thousand
varieties of torture and death invented by Satan, which
during twenty centuries have permanently existed in different
parts of the world; there, her dearest children, are crucified,
hung, burned at the stake, roasted at the fire, and torn
to pieces by savage beasts, during all this time and in
all these places. At this sight, borrowing the language
of Mary, she says to angels and to men: "See how I
have loved the world! To save it, I have given, and I still
give my most beloved sons, bone of my bone, and flesh of
my flesh."
Added
to so many others, this last trait of resemblance shows
us in the annals of humanity, two mothers, and only two,
Mary and the Church, who sacrifice their children for the
salvation of the world. 0 Mary! O Church! unheard of miracles
of charity! Let him who loves you not, be an anathema.
From
Ave Maria - May 19,1866.
