The Catholic Defender: Novena to the Holy Spirit to Pentecost May 28

The Mass is the source of the Purpose, the Passion, and the Power:

God the Father is the Purpose, God the Son is the Passion, God the Holy Spirit is the Power. The God of Heaven comes to us in His Eucharistic Presence. Jesus is truly Present Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity.

Holy Spirit! Lord of Light! From Your clear celestial height, Your pure beaming radiance give!

The Holy Spirit

Only one thing is important -- eternal salvation. Only one thing, therefore, is to be feared--sin! Sin is the result of ignorance, weakness, and indifference. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Light, of Strength, and of Love. With His sevenfold gifts He enlightens the mind, strengthens the will, and inflames the heart with love of God. To ensure our salvation we ought to invoke the Divine Spirit daily, for 'The Spirit helpeth our infirmity. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself asketh for us.'

Prayer

Almighty and eternal God, Who hast vouchsafed to regenerate us by water and the Holy Spirit, and hast given us forgiveness of all sins, vouchsafe to send forth from heaven upon us your sevenfold Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge and Piety, and fill us with the Spirit of Holy Fear. Amen.

Our Father and Hail Mary once Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses,

I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God.

I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love.

You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am.

I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations.

I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness.

Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace,

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, 'Speak Lord for Your servant heareth.' Amen.

PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the

Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal,

the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth,

the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven,

the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation,

the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints,

the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the

Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

Our Lady of Pompeii Novena

Our Lady of Pompeii is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii began in Pompeii, Italy, in the late 1800s.

Dear Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your mother. Help us to always turn to her as a mother in all of our needs!

Our Lady of Pompeii, devotion to you spread among the people in the valley of Pompeii after Bartolo Longo began to spread devotion to the Rosary. The veneration of your image and the people’s recourse to your powerful intercession brought many graces and so much good to the Church in Pompeii.

Please bring all of our petitions before the throne of your Son, and we particularly ask today that you pray for the Church!

Pray for us, that we may grow in devotion to God and in willingness to serve His Church. Pray that we may advance in holiness and virtue each day of our lives.

The church of Our Lady of Pompeii was built between 1876 and 1891. Between 1934 and 1939, the Basilica of Our Lady of Pompeii was built.

Dear Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your mother. Help us to always turn to her as a mother in all of our needs!

Our Lady of Pompeii, you look out for the good of all people in your motherly love. You want all of us to turn to you with our needs so that you may bring our needs before your Son. Through our devotion to the prayer of the holy Rosary, you can help us in all that we seek.

Please bring all of our petitions before the throne of your Son, and we particularly ask today that you pray that we and all people may grow in devotion to the holy Rosary!

Pray for us, that we may grow in love of God each day. Pray that we may be eager to make use of every help God gives us on our journey to heaven.

We pray for America, for our constitution, for those suffering addictions and those in bondage. For those who need Deliverence. We Pray for the Catholic Church, for Pope Francis and all the Clergy.

Our Lady of Pompeii, pray for us!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

The Catholic Defender: The 15 Promises Our Lady gave for the Rosary. The Fourth Promise

4. The Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. As we move along through the Promises that Our Lady offers, I can't help recognize how biblical the Virgin Mary is. The Virgin Mary is telling us that the Rosary, which she prays with us and for us, that virtue and good works will flourish. Psalms 11:7 states, "The LORD is just and loves just deeds; the upright will see his face."

Our Lady is clearly promising that we will see God "face to face" and live. Through the Rosary we are being transformed to a high degree and our "good works" will be made manifest. James 2:14-17 states, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead." What Our Lady is really saying is that we are being offered life through the merits of the Rosary. In the Rosary, we are delving into the mysteries of our Catholic Faith. The Rosary will foster strength into the Sacraments and living out of faith daily.

How will the Rosary obtain "abundant Mercy" from God? There can be countless ways God can offer His mercy, but for me, the devotion to the Rosary will strengthen the believer against sin and vice. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a way of life for the Christian. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the mercy seat, the place where you confess your sins and the Lord forgives you throwing those sins into the Sea of Forgetfulness and remembers them no more. In this great Sacrament you are given a judgement, a judgement of mercy. Through the practice of the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit will wound our hearts to have desire for the love of God.

None of us is perfect, but the Rosary will aid us to get to a high state of perfection. We will be lifted to that desire for "eternal things". The Virgin Mary is capable through the power of God, to take us to a deep place in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There again, we receive His rich mercy. God's Word touches the eternal soul of man through the power of His eternal Love. Psalms 136:1-26 puts an acclamation point on God's love stating "God's love endures forever" 26 times in this chapter.

Can you feel Our Lady's deep desire that people would respond to dedicate themselves to the Rosary that will aid us in the process of sanctification? 2 Thessalonians 2:13 states, "But we ought to give thanks to God for you always, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth." Sanctification relates to the making of saints that makes us holy setting us apart.

Eucharistic Miracle of of Offida Italy 1273

It seems that this Eucharistic Miracle begins when newlywed had to work within reality.

The husband Giacomo was spending more time with his mule than his wife Ricciarella who felt somewhat neglected.

Working in the felds with his mule, Giacomo might be seen today as a workaholic.

Offida is not to far from the Lanciano miracle of the 7th century.

The miracle of Offida begins in Lanciano in the year 1273 when newly married Ricciarella Stasio felt it necessary to utilize the services of the town witch in order to rekindle the affection of her husband Giacomo.

The witch told Ricciarella that in order to fix her marriage she should receive Holy Communion, but not consume the consecrated Host.

She should then take the Host home, burn it into a powder over her fire, and place the ashes into her husband’s food or drink.

In other words, she should commit a sacrilege and desecrate the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord. This is something no one should ever do!

For some reason Ricciarella did what the witch told her to do. She placed the consecrated Host she had received at Holy Communion on a tile and held it over the fire. Instead of turning to powder, the outside portion of the Host turned into flesh and began to bleed. The center of the Host retained its original form.

Panicking, Ricciarella took wax and dirt and threw it over the Host to try and cover the Blood. But the Blood seeped through the dirt. So Ricciarella covered the Host with a linen tablecloth decorated with silk embroidery and lace. She then buried this in the stable in the corner of the barn under the dung heap of their mule. From that time on, whenever Giacomo brought their mule into the barn, the mule would genuflect toward the manure pile in the corner.

Getting the mule into the barn was an undertaking in itself. Giacomo knew something was up as even all the other animals birds, ducks, geese,goats, pigs, would pause as to react to the corner of the barn towards the dungheap. This went on for seven years.

( Giacomo may not have had the spirituality as St. Anthony, but I love the kneeling mule).

Ricciarella lived with this grave sin for seven years. Finally she could no longer stand the torment that her action had brought her and she confessed to the priest of the local Augustinian monastery in Lanciano.

Ricciarella and the friar went to the stable and dug up the Host. When they uncovered the Host they found that It was intact and appeared as It had seven years earlier.

Since the Augustinian friar was a native of Offida, Italy, the miracle was deemed property of Offida. A craftsman in Venice fashioned a cross-shaped reliquary to hold the sacred relic.

Today the reliquaries of the tile, the Blood-stained linen, and the cross containing the miraculous Host are exposed in St. Augustine’s Church in Offida. Ricciarella’s house in Lanciano was made into a small chapel. Every year on May 3rd the citizens of Offida celebrate the anniversary of the miracle.

In 1788 Giovanni Battista Doria authenticated a parchment from the 13th century describing this miracle. There are also Papal Bulls from Pope Boniface VIII (1295), and Pope Sixtus V (1585) that describe the miracle. God from time to timer sometimes intervene in an extraordinary way at any given moment to any person. He certainly does that at every time the Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated.

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Reading 1 Acts 15:7-21 After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to the Apostles and the presbyters, "My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us. He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts. Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they." The whole assembly fell silent, and they listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them. After they had fallen silent, James responded, "My brothers, listen to me. Symeon has described how God first concerned himself with acquiring from among the Gentiles a people for his name. The words of the prophets agree with this, as is written: After this I shall return and rebuild the fallen hut of David; from its ruins I shall rebuild it and raise it up again, so that the rest of humanity may seek out the Lord, even all the Gentiles on whom my name is invoked. Thus says the Lord who accomplishes these things, known from of old. It is my judgment, therefore, that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God, but tell them by letter to avoid pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood. For Moses, for generations now, has had those who proclaim him in every town, as he has been read in the synagogues every sabbath."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10 R.(3) Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations. or: R. Alleluia. Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. Sing to the LORD; bless his name. R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations. or: R. Alleluia. Announce his salvation, day after day. Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds. R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations. or: R. Alleluia. Say among the nations: The LORD is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity. R. Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations. or: R. Alleluia.

Alleluia Jn 10:27 R. Alleluia, alleluia. My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Jn 15:9-11 Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."

Saint of the Day: Saint Ignatius of Laconi

He was the second of seven children of peasant parents in Sardinia. His path to the Franciscans was unusual.

During a serious illness, Ignatius vowed to become a Capuchin if he recovered. He regained his health but ignored the promise. When he was 20, a riding accident prompted Ignatius to renew the pledge, which he acted on the second time. Ignatius’s reputation for self-denial and charity led to his appointment as the official beggar for the friars in Cagliari. He fulfilled that task for 40 years, despite being blind for the last two years.

Ignatius's reputation for self-denial and charity led to his appointment as the official beggar for the friars in Cagliari. He fulfilled that task for 40 years, despite being blind for the last two years. While on his rounds, Ignatius would instruct the children, visit the sick, and urge sinners to repent.

He was known for his strict and total obedience to his superiors, even when it required the denial of his own will. He would not go to the house of a certain usurer because he feared that in accepting alms from the man he would share the guilt of his injustices. But when the man complained his superior ordered him to accept alms from him. However, when he returned to the friary and opened the sack with the alms the usurer had offered, blood started flowing out.

While on his rounds, Ignatius would instruct the children, visit the sick, and urge sinners to repent. The people of Cagliari were inspired by his kindness and his faithfulness to his work. Ignatius was canonized in 1951.

Why did the people of Cagliari support the friars? These followers of Francis worked hard but rarely at jobs that paid enough to live on. The life of Ignatius reminds us that everything God considers worthwhile does not have a high-paying salary attached to it.

He mingled with all people he met and was generous towards those who were ill. But he became known as a wonder worker and it was claimed that he had performed 121 miracles during his life. with an additional 86 reported after his death.

St Ignatius was beatified on 16 June 1940 and he was canonized in 1951and his remains were entered in Cagliari. There are two miracles attributed to him that occurred after his death. St Ignatius is known as the Patron saint for beggars and students.

Despite poor health and infirmities he continued his work, however arduous. Even after he became blind in 1779, he continued to work for the benefit of those around him. Peis died on 11 May 1781 at 3:00pm in Cagliari, where his remains were interred.

He was beatified on 16 June 1940 and was canonized later in 1951.[3] His body in Cagliari is still incorrupt.