Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Dominus, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.
As secularists try to push God out of our public lives, they push away the very Being that gives us life, a soul, and has kept our country strong and protected since its beginning. Prayer is all we have left, given what is happening everywhere. St. Louis de Montfort said: "Public prayer is far more powerful than private prayer to appease the anger of God and call down His mercy, and Holy Mother Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, has always advocated public prayer in times of public tragedy and suffering."
I write this especially for my Catholic family and friends. Next Saturday, October 15, 2011, there will be, around the country, public gatherings of the faithful, to pray all fifteen decades of the rosary, in procession. The rosary has been a powerful prayer for centuries, turning back enemies and producing miracles. It is scriptural in nature. If you don't know the traditional rosary prayers, they are, for each Mystery, the Lord's Prayer, 10 Hail Mary's and the doxology for the Trinity (Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.") For many years many of us have ended each Mystery with the prayer from Fatima, "O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy." The Blessed Virgin at Fatima, in 1917, asked that a rosary be said every day for the remission of sins of the world, for reparation against blasphemies and obscenities. She predicted then what would be happening in the future and the means to avoid the calamities. Prayer, amending our lives, atonement for sin.
There are five Joyful Mysteries, five Sorrowful Mysteries, five Glorious Mysteries, all based on events in the lives of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother. Each Mystery has a meditation or request for a particular virtue.
Joyful Mysteries: 1) the Annunciation by Angel Gabriel to Mary. Ask for the grace of humility.
2) The Visitation of Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Ask for the grace of fraternal charity towards our neighbor. 3) The Birth of Our Lord. Ask for the grace of detachment from things of this world, love of poverty and love of the poor. 4)Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple.Ask for the gift of obedience, wisdom and purity of heart, mind and body. 5) Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple. Ask for the grace to search for holy things and amend our lives.
Sorrowful Mysteries: 1) Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Ask for the grace of perfect sorrow for sin and obedience to the Will of God. 2)Scourging at the Pillar. Ask for the grace to mortify our senses and avoid sins of the senses. 3) Crowning Our Lord with Thorns. Ask for grace of contempt for the world and purity of thoughts. 4) Jesus Carries the Cross. Ask for patience in carrying our own cross in life and follow in Christ's footsteps. 5) Crucifixtion. Ask for the grace of a holy death for ourselves and those who are in their last agonies.
Glorious Mysteries: 1)The Resurrection. Ask for the grace of faith. 2) The Ascencion of Christ into Heaven. Ask for the grace of a firm hope and a great longing for Heaven. 3) Descent of the Holy Ghost on Mary and the Apostles. Ask to have the grace to practice our faith, to promote and defend it and speak Truth to others.4) Assumption of Our Lady, Body and Soul into Heaven. Ask that we may live a holy life and die a happy death to the attainment of everlasting life with God. 5) Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth.Ask that we become worthy to receive the eternal crown prepared for us.
In 1935 a very good priest, Rev. F.J. Remier, C.M., wrote the following:
"As a member of society and a citizen of your country, you must unite with the rest in making the atonement and reparation which Divine Justice requires for the public and national sins committed in the community in which you live.
"By public and national sins we understand certain sins of a graver nature which are committed on so large a scale and by so many persons in a community, be it a city, or a province, or an entire nation, that they are attributed to the community as a body and not merely to this or that individual. Sins of this kind are: Apostasy from Faith, irreligion and forgetfulness of God; godless education of the young; profanation of God's Holy Name, cursing, blashpemy and perjruy; the desecration of the Lord's Day; immodest and scandalous fashions; immoral art, literature and amusements, divorce and adultery sanctioned by iniquitous state law; dishonesty, injustice and oppression of the poor; murder and race suicide; (*homosexuality and abortion); and finally, those wild orgies of gross immorality and unrestrained license which periodically disgrace, public festivities and celebrations, or occur in connection with balls, dances, banquest and the like."
Remember that this was in 1935. How much worse are things today? He goes on to note that God is patient and long-suffering. He gives us plenty of time and warnings to change our ways. He waited a hundred years before He flooded the earth in Noah's time. Our Lord told of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. It was the year 70A.D. when the Romans accomplished that. He spared Ninevah altogether. Its citizens mended their ways and did penance at the preaching of Jonas.
God still acts that way. The appearances of Our Lady in the 20th century in Fatima and in the near past at Akita, Japan, were God's way of warning us again and again. He has given us chance after chance and the world continues to spiral into the worst offenses against Divine Law. These were not the only appearances. However, at Akita, Mary told the little nun who saw her that Her Son was increasingly angry. She could not stay His hand much longer. The cup had been filling up and was now spilling over.
Perhaps you don't believe in Divine Intervention; but the signs are all around us. How can we not see and hear the news every day of the atrocities, local, political, national, international; the corruption of our young; the sins that "cry out to heaven for vengeance," and not wonder if God will punish the world as He has in the past.
If there is a Rosary in the Public Square near you next Saturday, try your best to attend. Use your presence to witness to your Faith. Pray with others, in public, to appease God's anger.
10/9/11
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