1 June 2012: On the nine First Fridays

“I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My heart, that its all-powerful love will grant all those who communicate on nine consecutive first Fridays of the month the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my disfavor nor without receiving their sacraments. My Divine heart will be their secure refuge in their last moments.” (“Letter number 86 of St Margaret Mary to Mother Saumaise”) Ref: A F Makalinao, “Apostle of the Sacred Heart”, p20 The First Friday Mass and Communion The Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart includes the First Friday Mass and Communion of reparation, the Thursday night Holy Hour in memory of Our Lord’s bitter agony in Gethsemane, the liturgical feast for the Sacred Heart, and the Consecration and Reparation. The Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial became the first center of this devotion which later spread to other houses of the Visitation Sisters. St Claude de la Colombiere, the Jesuit spiritual director of St Margaret Mary, was instrumental in spreading the devotion especially to young people. In the 1840’s, Fr Gautrelet, also a Jesuit, started the Apostleship of Prayer. Fr Ramiere, another Jesuit formally organized it. Pope Pius IX approved it in 1849. The leadership and direction of the Apostleship remain under the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. During the twentieth century, almost all popes greatly promoted and wrote decisive decrees about this meritorious devotion. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the whole human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and referred to it as the ‘greatest act of my pontificate’. He also encouraged the faithful to have a personal consecration to the Sacred Heart, ‘the symbol and sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another’. On the feastday of the Sacred Heart, Pope Leo XIII stated that everyone should pray the ‘Act of Consecration’ published with his encyclical, ‘Annum Sacrum’. Popes Pius X and Benedict XV continued to enthusiastically foster and encourage the growth of this devotion. Pope Benedict XV officially proclaimed Margaret Mary a saint. In a letter to Fr Mateo Crowley-Boevey, who initiated the movement of enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in homes of Christian families, Pius X said he was not only asking him, but was ordering him, to give his life for this valuable devotion to invigorate Christian morality in the family. In his encyclical “Miserentissimus Redemptor”, Pius XI stressed the importance of reparation to the Sacred Heart as a duty of all Christians. For all the indifference, ingratitude and outrages of people, including consecrated ones, Jesus requested the faithful to 1) make a communion of reparation, and 2) do the Holy Hour where they should offer acts and prayers of reparation. Ref: A F Makalinao, “Apostle of the Sacred Heart”, pp30-31 Our Lady “Virgin Immaculate, my Mother, do not abandon me. See how my poor heart is filled with tears. I do not want to offend my God! “I already know, and I trust I shall never forget, that I am worth nothing. My smallness and my loneliness weigh upon me so much! But ...I am not alone. You, Sweet Lady, and my Father God will never leave me. “Faced with the rebellion of my flesh and all manner of diabolical arguments against my Faith, I love Jesus and I believe -- I do Love and do Believe.” Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 215) In virtue of the Spirit, Mary becomes Mother of God All of Mary’s greatness is in the fact that she is the ‘Mother of God’; the central point of all the Virgin is in herself and relative to believers. The Spirit is present and effective in a most precise way in this divine maternity. We are indebted to the Spirit for that event. Let us pause and meditate on “how ‘Mary’ virginally” becomes the Mother of God. The Holy Spirit, in the present economy of salvation, is always the ‘precursor of Christ’. Without the previous descent and activity of the Spirit, there can be no visible presence of the Word. ‘The Annunciation to the Virgin’ is the most evident and most important event in this process of the divine economy. This salvific fact in which ‘our salvation began’ already represents a pentecost. The Spirit descends on Mary in an effective way to make the Son of God a human being. Mary asked, “How can this be ...?” How can I virginally conceive a baby? The angel replied: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you; the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Lk 1:35) The Creed professes that Jesus ‘was born of the Virgin Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit’. The Holy Spirit, ‘he who gives life’ descends on Mary; surrounds her. It is he who has made known the Word of God. In the fullness of time, the Son of God, is made man in the womb of the Virgin. Fathers of the Church affirm: ‘When Mary gave her answer to God, she received the Spirit, who molded in her that flesh equal to God’. Why, we may ask, does this ‘becoming flesh’ of the Word, his becoming man, take place in the very womb of Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth? Why has such involvement between a human creature and the Holy Spirit never happened at any other time in human history? In Mary all this took place with the least resistance. Ref: Cf Theological-Historical Commission, “The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life”, 83-4, 1997 • Memorial of Our Lady of the Star, at Aquileia, Italy. This church is so called, because it is affirmed that a star was seen in open day on the head of St. Bernardine of Siena, when, preaching at Aquileia, he applied to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse, where it is said that there were twelve stars on her head. — (See his life in Surius.) “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of the Star, Aquileia, Italy (15th Century). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady, Health of the Sick (Kevelær, Germany). (MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady of Grace (Montreal, Canada) (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady of the Star. Aquiles/Aquileia, Italy. 15th century. www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm • Our Lady, Health of the Sick. Kevelaer, Germany. www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm • Notre Dame de Grace. Montreal, Canada. www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm