Our Lady of Budslau

Today is a day of great celebration for the faithful in Belarus. For several days now, many have been making the pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Budslau, with some as far as St. Petersburg, Russia, of course almost all walking on foot! We were thrilled when during his recent visit to Rome and the Holy Father, President Lukashenko invited Pope Benedict XVI to Belarus. It has been very difficult for Catholics with the present laws, but still the faith grows stronger each day. Historically Belarus has always remained strongly Catholic, though mostly in the past they were Eastern rite. Several times the Russian Tsar tried to force the people to convert to Orthodoxy (the Tsar was the head of the Orthodox Church and made all rules and regulations concerning it.) Many times whole villages would be executed rather than convert! The Dominican Order had its largest province in Belarus - the province of St. Hyacinth - as well as its largest number of martyrs. After the fall of Communism there was a rebirth of the faith, despite the fact that many of its former churches still remained in the hands of the Orthodox. Let us pray earnestly for our Belarusian brothers and sisters and that it will truly happen that the Pope will go there for a visit!

Month of the Precious Blood

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus
V/ Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
V/ Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
V/ Jesus, hear us. R/ Jesus, graciously hear us.
V/ God, the Father of Heaven, R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, R/ have mercy on us.
V/ God, the Holy Spirit, R/ have mercy on us.
V/ Holy Trinity, One God, R/ have mercy on us.
R/ for ff: save us.
Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father,
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God,
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament,
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony,
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging,
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns,
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross,
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation,
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls,
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy,
Blood of Christ, victor over demons,
Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs,
Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors,
Blood of Christ, bringing forth Virgins,
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril,
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened,
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow,
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent,
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying,
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts,
Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life,
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory,
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor,
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world. R/ spare us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, R/ graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, R/ have mercy on us.
You have redeemed us, O Lord, in your Blood.
R/ And made us, for our God, a kingdom.
Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, you have appointed your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by his Blood. Grant we beg of you, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Words of Jesus to Venerable Theresa Neumann

"My dear child, I wish to teach you to receive my Blessing with fervor. Realize that something immense takes place with you receive the Blessing of my priest. The Blessing is an outpouring of my Divine Holiness. Open your soul and let it become holy through the blessing. The Blessing is a heavenly dew for the soul, through which all that is done can be made fruitful. Through the power to bless, I have given the priest the power to open the treasury of My Heart and to pour out from It the rain of graces on souls. When the priest blesses, I bless. Then a vast stream of graces from My Sacred Heart flows into a soul to its fullest capacity. By recollection, keep your heart open, in order not to lose the benefit of the Blessing. Through My Blessing, you receive the grace to love, strength to endure suffering, and assistance for body and soul.

My Blessing often produces effects unknown to the soul. Therefore have great confidence in this outpouring of My Sacred Heart, and reflect earnestly on this favor to you. Often I keep hidden the workings of My Blessing so that it is known only in eternity.

Birth of St. John the Baptist

The Lord knew me before I was born; from my mother's womb He gave me my name!

The story of the birth of St. John the Baptist is a marvelous description of one person's vocation. Such great wonders and miracles seem far beyond our ordinary human experiences. Yet, each human person, without exception, also has his or her own marvelous and unique vocation call from God. Ours are often hidden behind more commonplace events, yet when we look back, we can see that in each vocation there are those little marvels of God's providence and guidance.
As is often mentioned, the saints, e.g. St. John Bosco, assert positively, that at least one out of every five persons has a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. That less than half of those called nowadays do not even hear this call, is not so surprising. But we heard recently that of those who DO hear God's voice, only 25% actually respond to His invitation. There are various reasons, the most common being fear and lack of encouragement from others.
In the Gospels, the only vocation specifically counseled by Jesus is that of consecrated life (religious life or priesthood included). "Come follow Me!" From the very beginning of the Church until very recently, the vocation to consecrated life was the first one a person considered. (We can see this in the counsels of St. Paul and the lives of the saints) Only after one was sure that one did not have a call to religious life or the priesthood, did one then consider marriage.
What caused this sudden shift in our society? How is it that the call to consecrated life is seen as something rare, when in fact it should be normal? Pope John Paul II pointed out years ago that the focus of our modern world of consumerism is on HAVING and DOING. Forgotten is the fact that we are called to BE - to exist - to manifest by our lives that we are indeed a unique and particular image of God. Only by following God's specific call to each one of us can we fufill that mission. It is not WHAT we are, but WHO we are, that matters.
In a particular way we find this call to BE lived out in a more perfect way in contemplative life. St. Therese says in her autobiography - I have found my vocation - it is to BE love in the heart of the Church. Pope John Paul remarks that this is the vocation of all contemplatives. It is true, of course, that priests and active religious are called to love, but this is expressed in some exterior manner, such as teaching. Contemplatives, on the other hand, focus all their attention on learning to BE love in the heart of the Church - for the sake of the Church. This is the main reason why Dominican nuns make study a vital, essential part of their way of life. We cannot love Him Whom we do not know. We study in order to more perfectly love our Divine Spouse!

One important element of our spiritual life, which we are taught early in life, is the daily examination of conscience. This short lesson taken from St. Gregory of Nyssa (brother of St. Basil the Great) is a wonderful guide for us.


A treatise on Christian Perfection by St Gregory of Nyssa
Christ should be manifest in our whole life
The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mind has conceived. So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications.
What then must we do, we who have been found worthy of the name of Christ? Each of us must examine his thoughts, words and deeds, to see whether they are directed toward Christ or are turned away from him. This examination is carried out in various ways. Our deeds or our thoughts or our words are not in harmony with Christ if they issue from passion. They then bear the mark of the enemy who smears the pearl of the heart with the slime of passion, dimming and even destroying the lustre of the precious stone.
On the other hand, if they are free from and untainted by every passionate inclination, they are directed toward Christ, the author and source of peace. He is like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts in your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.
For the purity of Christ and the purity that is manifest in our hearts are identical. Christ’s purity, however, is the fountainhead; ours has its source in him and flows out of him. Our life is stamped with the beauty of his thought. The inner and the outer man are harmonised in a kind of music. The mind of Christ is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behaviour. As I see it, Christian perfection consists in this: sharing the titles which express the meaning of Christ’s name, we bring out this meaning in our minds, our prayers and our way of life.

A treatise on the Trinity by St Faustinus
Christ, king and priest forever
Our Saviour received a bodily anointing and so became a true king and a true priest. Both king and priest he was of his very self; a saviour could be nothing less. Hear in his own words how he himself became a king: I have been appointed king by God on Zion his holy mountain. Hear in the Father’s words that he was a priest: You are a priest for ever in the line of Melchizedek. Aaron was the first under the law to be made a priest by being anointed with chrism, yet the Father does not say, “in the line of Aaron,” lest it be believed that the Saviour’s priesthood could be passed on by inheritance, for at that time Aaron’s priesthood was transmitted by lineal descent. But the Saviour’s priesthood is not inherited because this priest lives on for ever. Therefore Scripture says: You are a priest for ever in the line of Melchizedek.
There is, therefore, a saviour in the flesh who is both a king and a priest, though his anointing was not physical but spiritual. Among the Israelites, those kings and priests who were actually anointed with oil were either kings or priests. No man could be both king and priest; he had to be one or the other. Only Christ was both king and priest; because he had come to fulfil the law, he alone possessed the twofold perfection of kingship and priesthood.
Those who had been anointed with the oil of kingship or priesthood, although they received only one of these anointings, were called messiahs. Our Saviour, however, who is the Christ, was anointed by the Holy Spirit so that the passage in Scripture might be fulfilled: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness and raised you above your companions. The difference, then, between the one Christ and the many christs is in the anointing, since he was anointed with the oil of gladness, which signifies nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
This we know to be true from the Saviour himself. When he took the book of Isaiah, he opened it and read: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. He then said that the prophecy was fulfilled in the hearing of those listening.
Peter, the prince of the apostles, also taught that the chrism which made the Saviour a christ was the Holy Spirit; that is to say, the power of God. When in the Acts of the Apostles Peter spoke to that faithful and merciful man, the centurion, he said among other things: After the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, started out in Galilee and travelled about performing powerful miracles, and freeing all who were possessed by the devil.
So you see that Peter too said that Jesus in his humanity was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Thus Jesus in his humanity truly became the Christ. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he was made both king and priest for ever.

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Behold this Heart which has so loved men, and yet is requited by so much negligence and contempt.

Devotion to the Heart of Christ was already present in the Church in the Middle Ages especially in the writings and preaching of such people as Blessed Henry Suso, OP, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Gertrude, St. Bonaventure and St. Anthony of Padua. St. John Eudes fostered devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and wrote the first Liturgical Office of the Sacred Heart. Yet it was to St. Margaret Mary that Our Lord appeared and asked for the establishment of this Feast. He wished to remind men, who had grown cold, of how much He loved them.

In the 19th century former Christian countries one by one threw off the "sweet yoke of Christ" which led in turn to the First World War. To make reparation for these offenses many movements sprung up. Pope Pius XI then asked that all make an official Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart on this Solemnity. Inspired by this, Fr. Matteo Crawley-Boevey began spreading the devotion known as the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. The Church hoped by these means to bring men back to God. In some places, such as Argentina and Spain, the government itself consecrated itself and all its people to the Sacred Heart.

Today the Holy Father also has inaugurated the "Year of the Priest." It's purpose is two-fold: to enable priests to deepen their own understanding of what it means to be another Christ, and to encourage the faithful to show their love for their priests.