MYSTIC OF THE MONTH, Sacred Heart, Salesian Spirituality   No comments yet —  Filed under 

Month of the Sacred Heart with Mother Icaza, Visitandine

By on June 1st, 2017

Mexican Mystic Mother Angelica Alvarez Icaza,  Foundress of a Visitation Monastery, will lead us with her meditations, based on the  Litany to the Sacred Heart, through June, the Month of the Sacred Heart.

Day 16

Heart of Jesus, In whom the Father has been pleased

Only the Son of God  can be the object of the pleasures of the Father; only He and those that resemble Him; For this reason do not stop praying and working on that divine ideal of becoming a living portrait of Christ.

O Heart of Jesus!

I want to be your happiness

and to live always united to You

as Mary is.

Day 15

Heart of Jesus, In whom dwells the fullness of the divinity

 I was contemplating this when my eyes were fixed on the tabernacle and at the same moment, it was as if Jesus had thrown an arrow of love to me, I felt my heart pierced through , leaving me sweetly wounded by the Divine lover Chief of my loves .
An immediate effect was followed by a lively desire to sacrifice myself for GOD seeing with clear light that I have but the present moment to prove my love and thus I want to take advantage of it.

O Heart of Jesus!

You are the highest goodness

I want to imitate you

having great charity

Day 14

Heart of Jesus, In Whom Are All the Treasures of Wisdom and Science

While I received the blessing of the Holy Sacrament, I asked Him for a description of these treasures, particularly those that govern the nations and thus help them turn to God.

O Heart of Jesus!

I always want to be faithful

and repel lovingly

those who give You gall.

Day 13

Heart of Jesus, King and Center of All Hearts

King of love … who has been more beloved than You? Centuries pass but not your lovers and today we are thousands of souls burning in your love, who do not breathe but for your love and who will finally be consumed by your love.

O Heart of Jesus!

in my constant prayer,

I want to give you a thousand consolations,

giving myself to your love.

 

Day 12

Heart of Jesus, Worthy of All Praise

Yes,  and for this I want to see Him live in all nations. I do not know if it will be a dream, but when in the morning I receive Holy Communion as He is in my mouth I say:
I will not let you pass until you grant me this. Your kingdom comes to us. Just as a poor man would do to a king who visits him and going to the threshold of his door told him prostrate; Oh Sir I am not worthy that your majesty enters my poor house but since you have the kindness to visit me grant me this…  would not this be granted by the king ?  immediately  the Sacred form passes because I know that it should not be detained  in the mouth.

O Heart of Jesus!

In your presence I will be,

and recollected and humble

your sweet voice I will listen to.

Day 11

Heart of Jesus, Abyss of all the Virtues

Studying one by one the virtues of the Heart of my beloved Jesus I feel like one who wants to probe an abyss; Nevertheless these virtues that are in Him, I contemplate and fall in love with such blessings that I have no other desire than to copy them in my poor heart and to be as soon as I can a living portrait of Christ

Oh Heart of Jesus!

To relieve you in your sorrows
I will forget mine and think of others

Day 10

Heart of Jesus, Full of Kindness and Love
So inseparable are goodness and love from the Heart of my beloved that it is not possible to picture Jesus but full of kindness, gentleness, and love. Oh if they knew the delicacies of love He uses with his Spouses! I say what happens to me, with other souls He will do the same. He treats me with a kindness, with a love, gives me  ineffable and divine caresss that are but as the overflowing of His goodness and his love.

Oh Heart of Jesus!

 I am your honor guard

I will always be very present

to give you glory, love, reparation

Day 9

Heart of Jesus Receptacle of justice and love


The espoused soul: ” to You I come oh Heart of Jesus,  hungry and thirsty for justice and love. I will joyfully draw from the sources of your divine breast and I will be satiated”

Oh Heart of Jesus!
Grant me a great favor
to be pure in my intentions, in my soul and heart

 

Day 8

Heart of Jesus, Fiery Furnace of Charity

Lessons of the Heart Of Jesus: “My daughter, look at this Heart that burns in love for people that they learn of me that I love them; I have given you an example so that as I love them I love you

O Heart of Jesus!

opened with a lance

I want that you feed me

of that blood and water.

 

Day 7

Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven

God, mansion of God, a human-divine Heart, where the divinity dwells, where we also live  for the love that He has for us. And door of heaven! oh Jesus! the soul that contemplates your Sacred Heart lives as at the door of heaven, in the vestibule of glory. Jesus, my sweet Jesus, I beg you to reveal the charms of your divine Heart to all souls and once they know you they will forget the things of the earth, oh Heart of Jesus!the door of the sky, door that leads us to the Father as you yourself have said.

O Heart of Jesus!

Of singular attractiveness
I want to enter your breast and

you will  teach me to love

 

Day 6

Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Highest

What supreme adoration, what divine silence,
what infinite love in this heart that is the tabernacle of the highest . The soul is present to You  and silently adores  You.

O Heart of Jesus

Of the Visitation a Treasure

I want always to console You

To be a sweet joy for You.

Day 5

Heart of Jesus, Holy Temple of God
In this holy temple I pray always to your Father oh Jesus,  because you have taught me that only the supplications that pass from your divine Heart to the Father,  only these are accepted.

 

 

Oh Heart of Jesus

Whom I love so much, so much,

I promise you  to flee promptly 

from what is less holy

 

Day 4

Heart of Jesus of Infinite Majesty
Penetrating the soul of this sovereign majesty, I adore, I love,  even die;  outside I am forced to keep before the Holy Sacrament a deep respect,  and minor offenses seem to me crimes because the Heart of Jesus has long made me feel His Sovereign majesty and delicious love .
Oh Heart of Jesus!
I want to be yours, to be holy,

and for that I totally surrender

because that I know you love me.

Day 3

Heart of Jesus substantially united to the divine WORD

I am looking at the Heart of Jesus: such a human heart, a divine heart, with the bitterness of Calvary and the love of the Eucharist

If to achieve perfection
Is the greatest of your cravings
Dedicate yourself with determination to be faithful in your responsibilities.

Day 2

Formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin

In a ray of divine light contemplate the infinite and substantial love of God -He is the divine and human love of the Heart of Jesus- the love of a pure creature in the Heart of Mary . A spark of the divine burnings ignited my poor heart!

Day One

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father

How can I explain how the Word makes me penetrate into that divine affiliation! It makes me experience in a certain way the divine ardor that His human Heart has towards his Father, communicates to me these ardors or rather, we two together love; our hearts are made one heart to love and glorify the Father. I can not say more…..

Oh Heart of Jesus!

I surrender to you

I will not talk lightly

Nor much less of myself!.

 

Como podre explicar lo que el  Verbo me hace penetrar en esa filiacion divina! Me hace experimentar en cierto modo los ardores divinos que su Corazon humano tiene hacia su Padre, me comunica estos ardores o mas bien, lo amamos los dos juntos hechos nuestros corazones un solo Corazon para amar y glorificar al Padre. No puedo decir mas

Discernment Sundays - Chat Room, Salesian Spirituality, St. Francis de Sales   No comments yet —  Filed under 

Marriage According to St Francis de Sales

By on May 31st, 2017

We must ponder the holiness and dignity of this Sacrament 

 

 

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We continue our series with Part III, Chapter 38 “Counsels to Married People​” from An Introduction to the Devout Life. Here Saint Francis reminds us to pursue only that which is attainable.

Marriage is a great Sacrament both in Jesus Christ and His Church, and one to be honoured to all, by all and in all. To all, for even those who do not enter upon it should honour it in all humility. By all, for it is holy alike to poor as to rich. In all, for its origin, its end, its form and matter are holy. It is the nursery of Christianity, whence the earth is peopled with faithful, till the number of the elect in Heaven be perfected; so that respect for the marriage tie is exceedingly important to the commonwealth, of which it is the source and supply.

Would to God that His Dear Son were bidden to all weddings as to that of Cana! Truly then the wine of consolation and blessing would never be lacking; for if these are often so wanting, it is because too frequently now men summon Adonis instead of our Lord, and Venus rather than Our Lady. He who desires that the young of his flock should be like Jacob’s, fair and ring-straked, must set fair objects before their eyes; and he who would find a blessing in his marriage, must ponder the holiness and dignity of this Sacrament, instead of which too often weddings become a season of mere feasting and disorder.

Above all, I would exhort all married people to seek that mutual love so commended to them by the Holy Spirit in the Bible. It is little to bid you love one another with a mutual love,—turtle-doves do that; or with human love,–the heathen cherished such love as that. But I say to you in the Apostle’s words: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord.” It was God Who brought Eve to our first father Adam, and gave her to him to wife; and even so, my friends, it is God’s Invisible Hand Which binds you in the sacred bonds of marriage; it is He Who gives you one to the other, therefore cherish one another with a holy, sacred, heavenly love.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen says that in his time married people were wont to celebrate the anniversary of their wedding, and it is a custom I should greatly approve, provided it were not a merely secular celebration; but if husbands and wives would go on that day to Confession and Communion, and commend their married life specially to God, renewing their resolution to promote mutual good by increased love and faithfulness, and thus take breath, so to say, and gather new vigour from the Lord to go on stedfastly in their vocation.

This is a shortened version of the longer reflection. Click here to read the rest.

Questions to Ponder:

  1. Have you ever thought of the fact that marriage is a vocation that should be discerned, just like the priesthood andr religious life is discerned?
  2. How do you think the Church can better highlight the sanctity and importance of marriage?
  3. How can married couples and families be supported in their vocation and helped to see that their life is a call to holiness just like priests and religious?

Salesian Spirituality, St. Francis de Sales   No comments yet —  Filed under 

Feast of the Visitation May 31

By on May 30th, 2017

St. Francis de Sales chose to found his Order under the patronage of the Blessed Mother in her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, because her found many insights in this Scriptural passage.

” You will see the young, poor and little Lady carrying in her womb the Son of God, coming meekly to consult her dear and holy husband for permission to make the pious visit to her aged cousin, Elizabeth. You will see her say goodbye to her dear neighbors for the three months she expects to be in the country and mountains. I think that all leave her greatly touched, for she was so agreeable and friendly that one could not be without her love nor leave her without sorrow.

She undertakes her journey with a bit of eagerness, for the Evangelist says that it was with haste (Luke 1:39). Ah, the first fruits of the movements of him whom she had in her womb could only be made with fervor! O holy eagerness which does not disturb and which hastens us on without hurrying!

O God, what a beautiful pilgrimage! Consider that the Virgin only thinks about that of which she is full and that she only longs for the Savior. The Savior serves as staff, food, and a small bottle of wine- of wine, I say, which gladdens angels, and men, and elates God the Father with love beyond measure.”

Source: Letter DCXCVII, XV, St. Francis de Sales