We do not have to talk very much in order to pray well

 

We do not have to talk very much
in order to pray well.
We know that God is there in His holy tabernacle;
let us open our hearts to Him; let us rejoice in His Presence.
This is the best prayer.

St. John Vianney

Pope St. Cornelius

Cornelius was elected to the papal dignity during a time in which both the Church and civil society were in great turmoil. About the year 250, Rome was ruled by the Emperor Decius, who savagely persecuted Christians. He ordered all Christians to deny Christ by offering incense to idols or through some other pagan ritual. Many Christians refused and were martyred, among them St. Fabian, the Pope, while others burnt the sacrificial incense in order to save their own lives. In hopes that Christianity would fade away, Decius prevented the election of a new pope. However, he was soon compelled to leave Rome to fight the invading Goths and, in his absence, the papal election was held.

By 251, the Church had endured fourteen months without a pope when Cornelius was elected, much against his will. After the persecution, the Church became divided in two. One side, led by the Roman priest Novatian, believed that those who had stopped practicing Christianity during the persecution could not be accepted back into the Church even if they repented. Under this philosophy, the only way to re-enter the Church would be re-baptism. The opposing side, headed by Pope Cornelius, did not believe in the need for re-baptism. Instead, he believed the sinners should only need to show contrition and perform penance to be welcomed back into the Church. Novatian resisted Cornelius and declared himself Pope – thus becoming History's first antipope.

Later, during that same year, a synod of western bishops supported Cornelius, condemned the teachings of Novatian, and excommunicated him and his followers. When another persecution began in 253 under Emperor Gallus, Pope Cornelius was first exiled and then died as a martyr.

Our Lady of Sorrows

About this day, Abbot Prosper Guéranger comments how the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom God predestined to be the Mother of His Son, was united in her person to the life, mysteries and suffering of Jesus, so that she might be a faithful cooperator in the work of Redemption.

He notes that God must consider suffering to be a great good since He gave so much suffering to His Son, Whom He loved so much. And since, after His Son, God loved Our Lady more than any other creature, He also wanted to give her suffering as the richest of all presents.

On the solemnity of this feast, we primarily remember Mary on Calvary where she suffered the supreme sorrow of all sorrows that filled her life. Indeed, so great was Mary's grief on Calvary that, had it been divided among all creatures capable of suffering, it would have caused them all to die instantly.

If the Church limits the number of sorrows to seven, it is because this number has always symbolized the idea of totality and universality. To understand the extent and suffering of Our Lady, one must know the extent of her love for Jesus. Her love as Mother of God only augmented her suffering. In fact, nature and grace came together to produce profound impressions on the heart of Mary. Nothing is stronger and more pressing than the love that nature gives a mother for her son or that grace gives for God.

These considerations help us understand the role of suffering in our lives.

We see we are not alone in our suffering. In fact, the immensity of the crosses suffered by Our Lady was so great that we might also say she suffered not seven, but all sorrows. She is Our Lady of All Sorrows since no one suffered more.

While it is true that all generations will call her "blessed," to a lesser but immensely real degree, all generations may also call her "sorrowful."

Thus, we need to understand better that when sorrow enters our lives, it is a proof of God's love. And when we are not visited with sorrow, we do not have all the proofs of God's love for us. It is in sorrow that our mettle is tested. Moreover, one finds a note of maturity, stability and rationality in those who suffer and who suffer much. And so we should understand that when adversity, difficulties, misunderstandings, bad health and conflicts visit us, we must not see them as things that should never happen. To suffer is normal in this vale of tears.

If she, whom God loves so much, suffered, how much more should we suffer. The one who is loved by God and Our Lady suffers because God will not refuse to give him that which He gave abundantly to the two whom He loved most: Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady.

Thus, we must see temptations, trials, stress and so many other sufferings as something normal in life. We must ask that sufferings pass but when they persist, we must bless God and Our Lady.

Photos by: Mflito

They give us joy

 

We grow weary of sense goods
when we possess them.
Not so of spiritual goods.
They do not diminish, they cannot be harmed,
they give us a joy that is ever new.

St. Thomas Aquinas

One Good Turn Deserves Another

There was once a priest who had a special devotion to the sorrows of Mary. He would often remain alone in the chapel to commiserate the sorrows of his Lady.

So intently did he meditate on the sorrows endured by Mary Most Holy that, moved by compassion, he was accustomed to wipe the face of a statue of the sorrowful Virgin with a little cloth, as though real tears flowed there.

Now this good priest became quite ill. When he was given up by his physicians, and was going to breathe his last, he saw a beautiful Lady by his side. She consoled him with her words, and with a handkerchief gently wiped the sweat from his brow.

With this, the priest was miraculously cured.

When he found himself well, he said: "But, my Lady, who are you who practice such charity towards me?" "I am she," answered Mary, "whose tears you have so often dried,” and she disappeared.

From the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

What is life?

 

The life of the body

is the soul;

the life of the soul

is God.

St. Anthony of Padua

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

With great clarity the Gospels show us how much our Divine Savior in His mercy pities our pains of body and soul. We need only to recall the awesome miracles He performed in His omnipotence in order to mitigate these pains. But let us never make the mistake of imagining that this combat against pain and sorrow was the greatest gift He dispensed to mankind.

For the one who closes his eyes to the central fact of Our Lord's life — that He is our Redeemer and desired to endure the cruelest sufferings in order to redeem us — would have misunderstood His mission.

Even at the very apex of His Passion, Our Lord could have put an end to all those pains instantly by a mere act of His Divine will. From the very first moment of His Passion to the very last, Our Savior could have ordered His wounds to heal, His precious blood to stop pouring forth, and the effects of the blows on His Divine body to disappear without a scar. Finally, He could have given Himself a brilliant and jubilant victory, abruptly halting the persecution that was dragging Him to death.

But Our Lord Jesus Christ willed none of this. On the contrary, He willed to allow Himself to be led up the Via Dolorosa to the height of Golgotha: He willed to see His most holy Mother engulfed in the depths of sorrow. And, finally, He willed to cry out those piercing words "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46), which will echo down through the ages until the consummation of the world.

In considering these realities, we come to understand a profound truth. By granting each of us the grace to be called to suffer a portion of His Passion with Him, He made clear the unequaled role of the Cross in the lives of men, in the history of the world, and in His glorification. Let us not think that by inviting us to suffer the pains and sorrows of the present life, He thereby wished to dispense each of us from pronouncing our own "consummatum est" at the hour of our death.

If we do not understand the role of the Cross, if we do not love the Cross, if we do not live our own Via Crucis, we will not fulfill Providence's design for us. And at our death, we will not be able to make ours the sublime exclamation of St. Paul: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up to me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day." (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Any quality, however exalted, will avail nothing unless it is founded on love of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. With this love we can obtain all, even if we find heavy the holy burden of purity and other virtues, the unceasing attacks and mockeries of the enemies of the Faith, and the betrayals of false friends.

The great foundation, indeed the greatest foundation, of Christian civilization is that each and every person cultivates a generous love for the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May Mary help us to accomplish this. Then we shall have reconquered for her Divine Son the reign of God that today flickers so faintly in the hearts of men.

Photo by: GFreihalter