Today the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord and purification of the Holy Virgin Mary ( Feast of Candlemas )

The Feast of Candlemas, which derives its origin from the local observance of Jerusalem, marks the end of the Feasts included in the Christmas cycle of the liturgy. It is perhaps the most ancient festival of Our Lady. It commemorate, however, not only the obedience of the Blessed Virgin to the Mosaic Law in going to Jerusalem forty days after the birth of her Child and making the accustomed offerings, but also the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the meeting of the Infant Jesus with the old man Simeon - the Occursus Domini, as the Feast was anciently termed. This is the principal theme of the liturgy on this day: Jesus is taken to the Temple "to present Him to the Lord." So the Lord come to His Temple, and is met by the aged Simeon with joy and recognition.

The blessing and distribution of candles, to be carried lighted in procession, preceded the Mass today - a symbolic presentation of the truth proclaimed in the Canticle of Simeon: Our Lord is the "Light for the revelation of the Gentiles."The anthems sung during this procession, eastern in origin, well express the joy and gladness of this happy festival, and the honor and praise we give to our Blessed Lady and her Divine Son by this devout observance.

Oremus /Let us pray :

O Almighty and Everlasting God, we humbly beseech Thy majesty; that as Thine only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, so too Thou wouldst grant us to be presented unto Thee with purified souls. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God , forever and ever. Amen

Prayer to Holy Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Purification
( composed by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori )

O Holy Mother of God, and my Mother Mary, thou wast so deeply interested in my salvation as to offer to death the dearest object of thy heart, thy beloved Jesus! Since, then, thou didst so much desire to see me saved, it is right that, after God, I should place all my hopes in thee. O yes, most Blessed Virgin, I do indeed entirely confide in thee.
Ah, by the merit of the great sacrifice which thou didst offer this day to God, the sacrifice of the life of thy Son, entreat Him to have pity on my poor soul, for which this Immaculate Lamb did not refuse to die on the cross. I could desire, O my Queen, to offer my poor heart to God on this day, in imitation of Thee; but I fear that, seeing it so sordid and loathsome, He may refuse it. But if thou offerest it to Him, He will not reject it. He is always pleased with and accepts the offerings presented to Him by your most pure hands.
To thee, then, O Mary, do I this day present myself, miserable as I am; to thee do I give myself without reserve. Do thou offer me as thy servant, together with Jesus to the Eternal Father; and beseech Him, by the merits of thy Son and for thy sake, to accept me and take me as His own.
Ah, my sweetest Mother, for the love of thy sacrificed Son, help me always and at all times, and abandon me not. Never permit me to lose by my sins this most amiable Redeemer, Whom on this day thou didst offer with so bitter grief to the cruel death of the cross. Remind him that I am thy servant, that thou willest my salvation, and He will certainly graciously hear thee. Amen

God of Mercy and Compassion (+playlist)

4th Sunday of Advent : the fullness of Time

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Like the whole Liturgy of the Holy Season , the purpose of the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is to prepare us for the twofold coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: His coming in mercy at Christmas; and in justice at the end of the world.

In the Holy Mass we meet once again with the three great figures that are before the mind of the Church throughout Advent, Isaias, St. John the Baptist and the Holy Mary the blessed Mother of God . The prophet Isaias foretells of St. John the Baptist that he will be "A voice of one crying in the wilderness; Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." And, "the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the Baptism of penance for the remission of sins"

Saint John the Baptist, Saint Gregory explains, told those who hurried in crowds to be baptised: "Ye brood of vipers, who hath told you to flee from the wrath to come?" Now the wrath to come is the final chastisement, which the sinner will not be able to escape unless he have recourse now to the lamentations of penance. The friend of the Bridegroom warns us to bring forth not fruits merely of penance but worthy fruits. These words are a call to each man's conscience, bidding him lay up by means of penance a treasure of good works, the greater in proportions to the ravage of sin which caused it . And Saint Leo says, "God Himself teaches us by the prophet Isaias: I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, and I will turn the darkness before them into light and I will not foresake them."

The Apostle Saint John makes clear to us, the way in which this mystery is fulfilled, when he says, "And we know that the Son of God is come. And He hath given us understanding that we may know the true God and may be in His true Son." The liturgy continues: Because of the great love that God has manifested towards us He has sent on earth His only begotten Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. Also in the Communion sentence the Church recalls to us the prophecy of Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son; and His name shall be called Emmanuel."

And again, in the Offertory, she combines in a single salutation the words addressed to our Lady by the Archangel and by Saint Elizabeth. Saint Gregory writes: "Archangel Gabriel, whose name means strength of God, is sent to Mary, since he comes to announce the Messias whose will it is, to appear in humiliation and abasement, in order to subdue all the powers of the air. It was fitting that He should be heralded by Gabriel the 'Strength of God'; He, who was to come as the Lord of Might, the All-powerful and Unconquerable in battle, to crush the powers of the air in universal defeat" .

In the Collect, just as we are reminded of the display of our Lord's "great might" which will take place at the time of His second coming, when as supreme Judge, He will come in the splendor of His divine Majesty to render to each according to his works, so we find and allusion to this same great power manifested in His first coming. It was as one clothed in His weak and mortal human nature that our Lord put the Devil to flight. As we think of our Lord as nigh at hand in one or other of His "comings", let us say, with the Church, "Come, Lord Jesus, and tarry not."

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O Sacred and adorable Heart of Jesus!
Furnace of Eternal charity!
Ocean of infinite mercy!
Consolation of the afflicted!
Refuge of sinners!
and Hope of the whole world!
I most fervently adore Thee,
and unite my heart,
my affections,
and supplications,
to the perpetual homage Thou Thyself renderest
to the Divinity on our Altars.
Most amiable Heart,
which hast loved us with an eternal love,
supply Thyself for my insensibility,
and receive my desire at least of loving Thee
with all the ardour and sincerity Thou so justly meritest.
But remember, O adorable Heart!
that Thou hast not disclosed Thyself to us
only as an object of our adorations;
Thou desirest much more to engage our love,
and to become the ground
and motive of our loving confidence.
For this end,
Thou wert pierced through with a lance on the Cross;
and for the same purpose Thou remainest
a daily Victim of Thine own love on our Altars.
O infinitely compassionate Heart of Jesus!
which was overwhelmed with sorrow in the Garden of Olives,
at the view of our spiritual and corporal miseries,
I recur of Thee now with all the confidence Thou desirest
I should have in the extent of Thy power
and the riches of Thy mercy.
Convinced that those things
which are impossible to human beings
are infinitely easy to Thee,
and relying with an humble steadfast faith
on the sacred words of Truth itself,
that whatever we ask the Father
in the Name of Jesus should be granted,
I now most humbly implore in that adorable Name,
in virtue of that promise,
and through the abundant mercies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
the particular favour I petition for in this Novena.
( here our humble prayer petition )

O blessed saint Gertrude!
and all you glorious servants of Christ;
who while on earth were particularly devoted
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
join your prayers with mine,
and implore from the Divine Object of all your devotion
the obtaining of the petition which I now make,
and specially offer up through your intercession.
Beg likewise, from this adorable Heart,
which has dominion over all hearts,
and could in a moment change the most obdurate,
to have compassion on those who are
in the dreadful state of mortal sin,
and to open to us the treasure of its mercy
at the hour of our death.

Amen.