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Feast of the Divine Motherhood of Mary

 

blessed-virgin-Mary

Divine Motherhood of Mary

June 25:

Divine Motherhood of Our Lady, declared at the Council of Ephesus in 431

In the year 431, the council of Ephesus, which declared that the Blessed Virgin must be called Mother of God. As the Archbishop Cyril stated, “The Word was made flesh” can mean nothing else but that he partook of flesh and blood like to us; he made our body his own, and came forth man from a woman, not casting off his existence as God, or his generation of God the Father, but even in taking to himself flesh remaining what he was. This the declaration of the correct faith proclaims everywhere. This was the sentiment of the holy Fathers; therefore they ventured to call the holy Virgin the Mother of God, not as if the nature of the Word or his divinity had its beginning from the holy Virgin, but because of her was born that holy body with a rational soul, to which the Word being personally united is said to be born according to the flesh.”

The title of Mother of God with which the Catholic Church honors Mary, is not only the source of incomparable greatness in her, it is also a potent means to ground us firmly in the possession of the true Faith, and to bring us to a more perfect knowledge of God.

The Divine Maternity is the starting point of the work of salvation. In believing Mary to be the Mother of God, we believe also that the Word was made Flesh.

A faithful Christian cannot do better than follow the example given us by the Church, which never tires of proclaiming the truth of the Divine Motherhood of Mary to the universe at large. She does this by erecting shrines and churches in Mary’s honor, by the establishment of sodalities consecrated to her, by the approval of religious orders devoted to her service, and by the institution of practices of piety in her honor.

To Mary we can apply the words addressed to Judith of old: “Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord the Most High God, above all women upon the earth.”

 

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Prayer For the Glorification of the Servant of God LUISA PICCARRETA

Prayer For the Glorification of the Servant of God

LUISA PICCARRETA

 ECHO THE PRAYERS OF LUISA TO THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Oh august and Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise and thank You for the gift of the holiness of Your faithful servant Luisa Piccarreta. She lived, Oh Father, in Your Divine Will, becoming under the action  of the Holy Spirit, in conformity with Your Son,  obedient even to the death on the cross, victim and host pleasing to You,  thus cooperating in the work of Redemption of mankind. 

Her virtues of obedience, humility, supreme love for Christ and the Church,  lead us to ask You for the gift of her glorification on earth,  so that Your Glory may shine before all, and Your Kingdom of truth, justice and love,  may spread all over the world in the particular charisma of the

Fiat Voluntas tua sicut in Caelo et in terra. 

We appeal to her merits to obtain from You, Most Holy Trinity the particular grace for which we pray to You with the intention to fulfill Your Divine Will.  Amen.

 +Archbishop Givoan Battista Pichierri

Three Glory be,

Our Father

Queen of all Saints, pray for us.

  Trani, October 29, 2005

 

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NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA2mE1jWWJs[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA2mE1jWWJs[/youtube]

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John the Baptist

Nativity of John the Baptist –  Feastday:  June 24th

Calendar for the Traditional Roman Rite

 

The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will

…After many days of travel, finally I arrived in Judea , and I hastened to the house of Elisabeth. She came toward Me in feast. At the greeting I gave her, marvelous phenomena occurred. My little Jesus exulted in my womb, and fixing little John in the womb of his mother with the rays of His Divinity, He sanctified him, gave him the use of reason, and made known to him that He was the Son of God. And John leaped so vigorously with love and with joy that Elisabeth was shaken. Touched by the light of the Divinity of my Son, she too recognized that I had become the Mother of God; and in the emphasis of her love, trembling with gratitude, she exclaimed: “Whence comes to me so much honor, that the Mother of my Lord would come to me?”

I did not deny the highest mystery; rather, I humbly confirmed it. Praising God with the song of the Magnificat – sublime canticle, through which the Church continuously honors Me – I announced that the Lord had done great things in Me, His servant, and that because of this, all peoples would call Me blessed….

His name is John

Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John….” But John would have agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

John spent his time in the desert, an ascetic. He began to announce the coming of the Kingdom, and to call everyone to a fundamental reformation of life.  His purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. His Baptism, he said, was for repentance. But One would come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John is not worthy even to carry his sandals. His attitude toward Jesus was: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John was humbled to find among the crowd of sinners who came to be baptized the one whom he already knew to be the Messiah. “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew 3:14b). But Jesus insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, true and humble human as well as eternal God, was eager to do what was required of any good Jew. John thus publicly entered the community of those awaiting the Messiah. But making himself part of that community, he made it truly messianic.

The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan , and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus. He sent his disciples (when he was in prison) to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (chapters 49 through 53). John himself would share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of Herodias.

 

 

 

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Prayer For the Glorification of the Servant of God LUISA PICCARRETA

Prayer For the Glorification of the Servant of God

LUISA PICCARRETA

 ECHO THE PRAYERS OF LUISA TO THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Oh august and Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise and thank You for the gift of the holiness of Your faithful servant Luisa Piccarreta. She lived, Oh Father, in Your Divine Will, becoming under the action  of the Holy Spirit, in conformity with Your Son,  obedient even to the death on the cross, victim and host pleasing to You,  thus cooperating in the work of Redemption of mankind. 

Her virtues of obedience, humility, supreme love for Christ and the Church,  lead us to ask You for the gift of her glorification on earth,  so that Your Glory may shine before all, and Your Kingdom of truth, justice and love,  may spread all over the world in the particular charisma of the

Fiat Voluntas tua sicut in Caelo et in terra. 

We appeal to her merits to obtain from You, Most Holy Trinity the particular grace for which we pray to You with the intention to fulfill Your Divine Will.  Amen.

 +Archbishop Givoan Battista Pichierri

Three Glory be,

Our Father

Queen of all Saints, pray for us.

  Trani, October 29, 2005

 

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POPE FRANCIS TAKES ON THE MOB

Pope Francis 1Pope Takes on the Mob

What happened when Francis “excommunicated” the mafia.

BY: Fr Dwight Longenecker (23)

Reuters

22.06.2014 //

Gentle Pope Francis sounded more like an old fashioned “hellfire and brimstone” preacher when he condemned mafia violence over the weekend.   As he visited the crime torn region of Calabria, Pope Francis said that the gangsters “adore evil” and continued, “Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated.”  

Did Pope Francis excommunicate individual gangsters? Did he simply issue a group condemnation? What is excommunication and what is its effect?   The simple definition is that excommunication puts a person out of communion with the church. They are outside the Body of Christ and therefore are not entitled to receive the Body of Christ at Mass.  

Excommunication is not an arbitrary punishment. A person puts himself outside the Body of Christ by behavior or beliefs that, by their very nature, exclude the person from belonging fully to the church. We can think of the church like a family. If a child rejects his family through hatred and violence he puts himself outside the fellowship of his family.  

Excommunication is a formal recognition that such behavior or beliefs have taken place. The necessity of excluding some people from the fellowship of the church is well grounded in Scripture. Jesus says in Matthew 18 that there is a method for correcting a brother, and the ultimate action is to “treat him as a Gentile and tax collector” — in other words, to exclude him.

St. Paul recommends excommunication for those guilty of sexual immorality, idolatry, drunkenness, swindling, but they can be restored through repentance and emendation of life. Writing to the Romans, Paul also says, “mark those who cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them.” The second letter of St. John also recommends excommunication for doctrinal reasons.

  In canon law excommunication is a “censure.” This means it is a medicinal discipline. It is not simply a punishment. In saying it is “medicinal” we mean that it is intended to help the person realize the error of their ways and bring them back into the fold. The intention therefore is not to exclude them forever or condemn them to hell for eternity, but to exclude them until such time that they repent and return to the way of the Lord.   Excommunication can be latae sententiae which means automatic, or it can be ferendae sententiae which means it is imposed by a competent church authority.

Earlier versions of canon law excluded the person from the fellowship of the church completely. It even indicated that some excommunications included the demand that the excommunicated person be shunned completely by the community while a lesser form stated that they were to be tolerated socially but excluded from holy communion and church leadership.  

The current version of canon law simply excludes them from receiving communion, but encourages the excommunicated person to continue the obligation to attend Mass and participate in the work of the church. While they should attend Mass they may not lead any part of the Mass or be in leadership positions in the church.  

An automatic excommunication is incurred for certain grave sin. So, for example, a person is automatically excommunicated for having an abortion or procuring an abortion. The problem with automatic excommunication is that it cannot be enforced even if a priest knows that a person has been automatically excommunicated.

The excommunication has to be recognized and declared by the bishop formally for it to be enforced.   Excommunication is lifted through the sacrament of reconciliation and a formal lifting of censure. This power is granted to bishops and often delegated to their priests. If the excommunication was incurred because of heresy or disobedience by a religious the person may be required to formally affirm the creed and make a new vow of obedience.  

What happened when Pope Francis “excommunicated the Mafia”? He declared in an informal way that they have cut themselves off from the church. Their actions of greed and violence have caused them to be separated from Christ and if they continue on their path they are therefore cut off from Heaven. The Pope did not make a formal declaration of excommunication because to do that he would have to name names.

  Finally, we must remember that the mission of the church is to draw souls to Christ and to his salvation and mercy. That’s the reason for excommunication and that is the ambition of the priest as he ministers the sacrament.  

The church exists to offer Christ’s mercy to all who repent. Excommunication serves that greater goal.

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