With a large part of summer already behind us, many are already anticipating a new season and its inherent requirements. New clothes for the children – a size or two larger than their predecessors, a warm sweater or jacket, school supplies (on sale now, get ’em while they last!!!) If you haven’t done so, now would be an opportune time to reflect on the “new season” of one’s life. This coming weekend brings the First Friday and First Saturday devotions for the month of August. If you have yet to accomplish these, NOW is the best time to start!!! The weather is temperate, the hour is at hand, and if you should hear His voice, harden not your heart. Our Lady of Fatima asked us to make the First Saturday Communion of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart. Her promise: “I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, 1) shall confess, 2) receive Holy Communion, 3) RECITE five decades of the Rosary and, 4) keep me company for 15 minutes while MEDITATING on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me.” If perhaps, you are somehow spiritually deficient and are in need of the grace to set these things into motion, Come, ASK, PLEAD!!! God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. “Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee save Me, save only Me?” 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament begins after the 8AM First Friday Mass and concludes Saturday morning, followed by the Mass of First Saturday.
Please take a moment or two to drop by the splendid grotto on the east side of the chapel. Now nearly complete, save for the river Gave, it is an edifying depiction of the young lady of Lourdes, St. Bernadette Soubirous, kneeling before the Blessed Mother. The first grotto and these same statues, located at the Dale Street location of Padre Pio Academy, were blessed by Father Schell a number of years ago. It’s wonderful indeed that they have such a beautiful new home!!!
Remember to begin a Rosary tally sheet for The Consecration of Russia, available in the vestibule. At least take one home and read it over!!!
The next Yard Sale is Saturday, August 27 – a short 4 weeks away. A shorter 3 weeks away is the weekend you will deliver all your unneeded worldly possessions to Padre Pio Academy for yard sale preparation!!!
PRAYERS OF REPARATION TO THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS
(As requested by Our Lord Jesus Christ)
These prayers are to be said on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, publicly (if possible), and preferably before the Blessed Sacrament or before the picture of the Holy Face.
Dear Lord, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, I (we) offer Thee these prayers in reparation for the sins which offend God the most in these modern times – the sins of BLASPHEMY and the PROFANATION OF SUNDAY and Thy Holy Days of Obligation:
One Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be To The Father
THE “GOLDEN ARROW” PRAYER
Dictated by Our Lord to Sister Mary of St. Peter
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.
After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary of St. Peter was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by this “Golden Arrow”, as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners.
The Chaplet of the Holy Face
For “Triumph of Christ’s Holy Church, and the downfall of Her enemies.” The Chaplet of the Holy Face comes from Sr. Mary of St. Peter, a Holy Carmelite Nun of Tours, France, given to her by our Lord November 15, 1843. It is said for the “Triumph of His Holy Church, and the downfall of her enemies.” It is well to recite daily to obtain this. It is for the honor of the 5 senses of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first 30 beads recall the 30 years of Jesus hidden life. They are divided into 5 groups of 6 beads each. Each one represents one of the five senses. TOUCH, HEARING, SIGHT, SMELL, and TASTE. Each decade is said meditating on one of the five senses to offer reparative homage for all the suffering and disrespect JESUS endured through the senses of His Holy Face during His passion. St. Athanasius said the devils hate “Arise, O Lord and let they enemies be scattered…” more than any other scripture verse. He added that this always compelled them to take flight.100 days extra indulgence for every prayer said before a picture of the Holy Face!nGranted by Pope Pius IX, Dec. 11, 1876/ The cross reminds us of the mystery of our redemption.
Sign yourself with the Cross and say:
V … O GOD, incline unto my aid!:
R … O Lord, make haste to help me!:
Glory Be to the Father….
Now go to the first decade bead after the medal, on each of the 6 beads say:
V … Arise. O Lord and let Thy enemies be scattered
R … And let them that hate Thee flee from before Thy Face.
Then say Glory be to recall the sense you wish to honor.
On the Father beads say:
“My JESUS Mercy”
Repeat this sequence till you come to the medal
On the Medal say:
V… O GOD, our protector, look down upon us,
R… And cast thine eyes upon the Face of Thy Christ!
The last 3 beads mark JESUS public life, on them we honor all the wounds inflicted upon His adorable Face! Treat these beads the same saying on the Our Father bead “My JESUS Mercy” proceeded by a Gloria, then the “Arise O Lord.” When done, the Glory Be, is recited 7 times in honor of the 7 last words of JESUS upon the Cross, and the 7 Dolors of the Immaculate Virgin. When JESUS was named, Satan was disarmed!
Prayer of St Therese of the Infant Jesus and the Holy Face
It is said that this devotion brought St Therese of Lisieux, “the Little Flower”, to her great sanctity. This is the prayer to the Holy Face St. Therese composed:
O Jesus, who in Thy bitter Passion didst become “the most abject of men, a man of sorrows”, I venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured features, I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, whose adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy divine image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.