AUGUST: The Immaculate Heart

The physical heart of Mary is venerated (and not adored as is the Sacred Heart of Jesus ) because it is united to her person, and is the seat of her love (especially to her Divine Son), virtue, and inner life. Such devotion is an incentive to a similar love and virtue in our lives.

This devotion has received new emphasis in this century from the visions given to Lucia Dos Santos, oldest of the visionaries of Fatima, in her convent in Tuy, in Spain, in 1925 and 1926. In the visions Our Lady asked for the practice of the Five First Saturdays to help make amends for the offenses given to her heart by the blasphemies and ingratitude of men. The practice parallels the devotion of the Nine First Fridays in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
On October 31, 1942, Pope Pius XII made a solemn Act of Consecration of the Church and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart and, in 1944, instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart to be celebrated as an annual reminder of the Solemn Consecration.

INVOCATIONS:

O Heart most pure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, obtain for me from Jesus a pure and humble heart.

Indulgence of 300 days; a plenary indulgence once a month on the usual conditions for the daily devout repetition of this invocation. (387)

Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation.

Our Lady of Czestochowa: Feast Day, August 26

Here in our parish, we will celebrate our Odpust on Sunday, August 22, 2010. At the 10:30 Mass, we will have a procession with banners and icons to honor our patroness, Our Lady of Częstochowa.

The Message of the Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa

The Blessed Virgin has spoken through this most holy Polish relic in a different way than in some of her other apparitions. Her original intent was to help St. Luke, the painter of the icon, to record the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa has withstood many attempts to destroy it. Wars, pillaging marauders and other evildoers have made many attempts throughout the centuries to destroy the image and the monastery at Jasna Gora which enshrines it. But on every occasion the image was preserved.

A famous attack in the year 1430 A.D. left two slashes in the face of the beautiful black Madonna. Despite the attempts of art historians to repair these marks, they have remained as a sign of the Blessed Virgin’s suffering with us. After World War II, the Polish people derived much strength from the icon to rebuild their lives and their country. The message she came to deliver in this miraculous image has not only survived but thrived for 2,000 years. Praise God!

SAINTS OF AUGUST: St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe was born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he recovered, he remained frail all his life. Before his ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Our Lady. After receiving a doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the Immaculata" and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the world.


St. Maximilian went to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for a time. But in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. And he was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1981. His feast day is August 14th.

He is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners, amateur radio and the pro-life movement.

GLEANINGS...... From Nobel Prize Laureates

Man is man because he can recognize supernatural realities, not because he can invent them.
T.S. Eliot, Literature, 1948

I think only an idiot can be an atheist.
Christian Anfinsen, Chemistry, 1983

I was merely an electrician and the only things I had were my belief in God, and my belief in what I was doing.

Lech Walesa, Peace, 1983





We have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world.
John Eccles, Medicine, 1963

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein, Physics, 1921

Religion is very different from science…When you play the piano, when you climb a mountain, does this contradict your scientific endeavors? …In science we have certain ways of thinking about the world, and in religion we have different ways of thinking about the world. Those two things coexist side by side without conflict.
Robert Aumann, Economics, 2005

Wherever we may look, far and wide, we nowhere find a contradiction between religion and natural science. Quite the contrary, precisely on the decisive points we find complete agreement.
Otto Hahn, Chemistry, 1944

I do not believe that anyone should ever say that science agrees with religion. What I would say, which I think is a far more powerful statement, and one which allows people to be religious, is to say, the modern observations of science do not disagree with religion.
Arno Penzias, Physics, 1978

I consider the power to believe to be one of the great divine gifts to man through which he is allowed in some inexplicable manner to come near to the mysteries of the Universe without understanding them.
Ernst Chaim, Medicine, 1945

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science.

Albert Einstein, Physics, 1921

Being an ordinary scientist and an ordinary Christian seems perfectly natural to me.
William Phillips, Physics, 1997

It is a fact – and I saw it with my own eyes- that man in his downfall has nothing to lean on, nothing to solace him, except faith. The NKVD brought many back to the religious fold…Lukishki nights taught us that faith takes better care of man, when things go badly with him, than man does of his faith when things are well with him.

Menachem Begin, Peace, 1978

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

Jimmy Carter, Peace, 2002

Whenever I’m in trouble, I pray. And because I’m in trouble all of the time, I pray almost constantly.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, Literature, 1978

Two Young Martyr Saints: Philomena and Tarcisius

Who was Saint Philomena?


Saint Philomena is a saint who has received extraordinary honor in the Church from popes, bishops, saints, and mystics. Pope Gregory XVI referred to her as the “wonder-worker” of the nineteenth century. Bl. Pope Pius IX declared her the “Patroness of the Children of Mary.” St. John Vianney attributed all of his miracles to her, stating, “I have never asked for anything through the intercession of my Little Saint without having been answered.” Bl. Anna Maria Taigi, the Roman “mother-mystic,” received through this saint the miraculous cure of her granddaughter and entrusted all her children to her powerful intercession. Father Damien of Molokai showed his devotion by naming his church in her honor. The popes of the nineteenth century showered this young saint with numerous plenary indulgences, and gifts such as papal rings and pectoral crosses.



In 1802, excavators working in the ancient Catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome discovered a tomb with three terra-cotta slabs reading PAXTE; CUMFI; LUMENA which means "Peace Be With You, Filumena." The slabs were marked with a lily, arrows, an anchor and a palm, indicating virginity and martyrdom. Inside were the remains of a girl of about thirteen years of age, along with a vial of her dried blood which signified that this was indeed a Martyr who died for the love of Christ and Christianity.


St. Philomena is the patroness of many types of petitioners, but most especially the Children of Mary. Her Feast Day is August 11.

St. Philomena Chaplet

This chaplet consists of three white beads and thirteen red beads. On the medal say the Apostles' Creed to ask for the grace of faith.

On each of the white beads say an Our Father in honor of the three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity in thanksgiving for all favors obtained through her intercession.

On each of the red beads, which are thirteen in number to commemorate the thirteen years that St. Philomena spent on earth, say the following prayer:

Hail, O holy St. Philomena, whom I acknowledge, after Mary, as my advocate with the Divine Spouse, intercede for me now and at the hour of my death.

St, Philomena, beloved daughter of Jesus and Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.

Who was Saint Tarsicius?


Back in the third century a boy named Tarcisius gave a great testimony. About 12 years old,he was an altar server. Being a time of persecution, they could not celebrate Mass openly as we do, so they went underground – in the Catacombs of Rome. Usually after Mass the deacon took Communion to prisoners, but one day the deacon was not there. For his replacement they made a remarkable choice. On account of his maturity, faith and piety, they chose Tarcisius. The priest placed the consecrated hosts in a special container, then gave them to Tarcisius who held them under his clothes, near his heart. On the way some boys were playing ball. Needing an extra player, they called Tarcisius to join them. When he said he could not, they asked him what he was holding. He did not want to show them the Eucharist, so they gathered around him and began hitting him. Eventually a man came who shouted and chased the boys away. Tarcisius was beaten so badly the man had to pick him up. He died on the way and was buried in the Cemetery of St. Callixtus.

St. Tarcisius is the Patron Saint of Altar Boys. His feast day is August 15.

An Altar Boy’s Prayer

O God, You have graciously called me to serve You upon Your altar. Grant me the graces that I need to serve You faithfully and wholeheartedly. Grant too that while serving You, may I follow the example of St. Tarcisius, who died protecting the Eucharist, and walk the same path that led him to Heaven.

Amen.

Devotion of the Month: The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Novena Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

O Most Blessed Mother, heart of love, heart of mercy, ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer. As your children, we implore your intercession with Jesus your Son. Receive with understanding and compassion the petitions we place before you today, especially ...(special intention).

We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open to those who ask for your prayer. We trust to your gentle care and intercession, those whom we love and who are sick or lonely or hurting. Help all of us, Holy Mother, to bear our burdens in this life until we may share eternal life and peace with God forever. Amen