Wednesday, December 24, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 9

December 24

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a colt, the foal of an ass... because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your captives free from the waterless pit.  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double... Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning... On that day the LORD their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.  Zechariah 9:9, 11-12, 14,16.

At Bethlehem Love and Death met in the Body of Christ, and Love prevailed.  Over and over again in every human life, love and death meet face to face.  No human power of splendour or strength; no material might or wealth can overcome death--the death of the soul.  But if the life in the soul is the tiniest spark of the life of Christ, love prevails and death is overcome in us.  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold him, born the King of Angels;
O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Welcome, Infant Lord;
Gift of Life for languishing souls;
Healing Hope for all who despair;
Freedom for hearts held captive by lesser loves.
The door of my heart is open to receive you.
My hands are empty; my mind no longer labors in futility
to secure false claims of future comfort and success;
for You are here, and Everything has changed:
Pure Possibility descends, as benediction,
on all the ordinary places of my life.
My God and My All sleeps blissfully
in the arms of the Virgin.


Cause of our joy, pray for us.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 8

December 23

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.  The cow and the bears shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  The sucking child shall play over the hold of the asp,and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6-9

Knowing that God supplies all our necessities, and that one of our necessities is that we surrender to Him, we should not be surprised that He comes to us as an Infant: for surrender to an infant, any infant, is easy.  Surely never did God receive more fully what is due to Him from man than when He was an infant.  Every infant demands and receives the most complete self-giving that we are capable of.  The perfection of surrender to God is Mary with the Infant Christ.  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, O come Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
How perfect your condescension, Child of Heaven;
To come as helpless Love nestled in crude crib’s straw!
How, then, resent God’s choice to clothe us in fragile flesh?
Teach us, Little Lord, how to live in the mystery of our mortality.
May your coming in humility chastise our proud hearts
and thus prepare them for for your coming in glory.


Mystical Rose, pray for us.

Monday, December 22, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 7

December 22

Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you see will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.  But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.. and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver... Behold, I will send you Elijiah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.
Malachi 3:1-3; 4:5-6

Christ is not only born at Christmas, though it is at Christmas that we keep the Feast of the Incarnation.  He is born day after day; in every infant or adult as they are baptized, in every sinner who is sorry for sin and absolved, in everyone in whom God’s grace quickens the supernatural life (which is the Christ-life) for the first or the millionth time... We can say (that) on any night, anywhere--in a tenement, prison, hospital, school, church: wherever Christ is born or reborn in a human life, that place becomes a new Bethlehem.  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind.
From dust thou brought us forth to life; deliver us from earthly strife.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Thank you, Lord, for a world in which everything signifies,
in which every word, thought and deed
carries the weight of Eternity,
and where prophets rage
when we forget
that Happiness is ours
to win--or lose.


Refuse of sinners, pray for us.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 6

December 21

Arise,shine;for your light has come,and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.  For behold,darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you,and his glory will be seen upon you.  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.  Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms.  Then you shall see and be radiant, your hearts shall thrill and rejoice... Isaiah 60: 1-5

Christ came out of the darkness of the womb.  He was the Light of the World.  He came to give the world life.  The life of the whole world burnt in the tiny flame of an infant’s life, it began the agelong fight with death in the least and frailest that human nature can be; in the helplessness, the littleness, the blindness of any infant, life prevailed.  The Light of the World shone in darkness.  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, thou Dayspring,come and cheer
our spirits by thy justice here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Rouse me with beauty, Lord.
Light Unimaginable, penetrate the darkest places of my being
with that same delicacy by which dawn comes daily
to a sleeping world.


Morning Star, pray for us.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 5

December 20

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: “The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the keys of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens, I know your works.  Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name... Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world... I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.  Revelation 3:7-11

We must put the Infant Christ in our souls, into the Father’s arms.  We must trust Him to hold us in His hands, to put us wherever we should be, to arrange the environment that is best for us, to rock us to sleep when we should sleep, to wake us when we should wake, to ease our pain when our pain should be eased, to feed us when we should be fed, to lift us up and put us down according to the wisdom of everlasting love.  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home,
The captives from their prison free,
and conquer death’s deep misery,
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Small victories grant, O Lord, to those who wait and love.
Small victories grant to those who wait and weep.
Small victories grant to those who wait in weakness.
The tiniest flicker of hope sustains those
who are content to wait
for your coming.


Gate of Heaven, pray for us.

Friday, December 19, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 4

December 19

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.  And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor; and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.  Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. Isaiah 11:1-5

Christ came, and comes now, that we should have life and have it in its fullness, that we should be wholly human, wholly natural, wholly supernatural, that in all our loves He should be our life.  If our mind and heart and eye are fixed not on self, but on the Christ-life in us, we shall realize the wonder of truth in His words; “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come thou Root of Jesse’s tree, and ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall; all peoples on thy mercy call.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
All my longing Lord, is for you.
The lost dreams of my youth for a world made new;
The futile hopes I cherished for myself and my own;
The desire so deep and ancient I no longer know its name--
Take and receive these broken gifts, O Holy One of God,
Give in exchange Your vision of what might be.
Come quickly, Lord, and lighten our darkness
Come quickly, Lord.  We perish.


Mirror of Justice, pray for us.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 3

December 18

And the angel of the LORD appeared to (Moses) out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed... And (the LORD) said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.  Then the LORD said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey... Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people... out of Egypt.”  But Moses said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” Exodus 3;2-12

Sometimes, indeed very often, His approach to us coincides with a catastrophe and is in the midst of it, and for that reason is hardly noticed.  We are too intent on the din of the disaster to hear the “still, small voice,” or we drown it with noisy tears.  Disasters are not God’s will, they are the result of sin and opposed to God’s will; but in His mercy He does allow that the suffering resulting from them, though never the sin that caused them, can be caught up in to His love and do good.  Thus Christ’s first coming on earth was in the midst of the disaster of the world’s suffering caused by sin, and it was precisely to take hold of this suffering and transform it by love that He came. Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times once gave the law in cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Hope of the World, we see sin and sorrow everywhere
and daily succumb to discouragement.  Burn bright in our hearts when our small hopes flicker, Lord.  Place our feet too on holy ground so that when you call us like Moses back to Egypt,we will hear and surrender our suffering to the purifying power of your redemptive love.

Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 2

December 17

Then the Creator of all things gave me (Wisdom) a commandment, and the one who created me assigned a place for my tent.  And he said, “Make your dwelling in Jacob and in Israel receive your inheritance.”  From eternity, in the beginning He created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist.  In the holy tabernacle I ministered before Him, and so I was established in Zion.  In the beloved city likewise He gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my dominion, so I took root in an honored people, in the portion of the Lord, who is their inheritance.  Sirach 24:8-12

The Old Testament, which many imagine to be the revelation of a terrifying God, is full of the gentleness of His approach.  He comes as a “still small voice”; He covers His face, lest it should wither away the light of man’s eyes by its majesty.  He is compared to the coming of morning light and to rain falling upon the thirsty earth: “We shall know and we shall follow on that we may know the Lord.  His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and He will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth...”  (Hosea 6:3)  Caryll Houselander


HYMN
O Come thou Wisdom from on high,
and order all things far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show and cause us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
My Christ, come quickly
and order my life according to the pattern of your own.
Replace the chaos which threatens to submerge me
with the holy calm that is the fruit of prayer
and the deep and quiet joy that is the harvest of obedience.


Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

WAY Christmas Novena - Day 1

December 16

Write the vision;make it plain upon tablets,so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time;it hastens to the end it will not lie. If it seem slow,wait for it;it will surely come,it will not delay. Habakkuk, 2:2-3

It is of absolute necessity for our peace that we surrender ourselves wholly to God. Most people want to do this, but they do not because the are afraid. If, in their rasher moments of fervour, they have made heroic self offerings, they go about their business afterwards distinctly uneasy, fearful that some catastrophe will overtake them in order to detach them from the earthly affections which they suppose to be hindering their perfection...these anxieties can be put to rest by a little thought about God’s approach to us, His way with human beings. It is not a way of detachment but attachment; not a way of indifference but of love. He approaches not by catastrophes, but by gentleness; not demanding our surrender but winning it, if we put no obstacle, almost before we realize who it is that sues for our love... “Behold!” Our Lord says, “I stand at the door and knock.” An obstacle to surrender to Him would simply be not to open the door. If we opened it and saw who it was that knocked, we should not find it a difficult or frightening thing to give Him what He asked of us. Caryll Houselander



HYMN
O come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


MAGNIFICAT
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.


PRAYER
Lord, I watch for your coming;
and I long for the peace you have promised;
but as a woman fears the pain of labor
as her time of deliverance approaches,
so do I fear what your coming will require of me;
In your merciful patience, grant me the grace
of a hope that conquers fear,
so that I will open the door of my heart
when I hear you knocking
and surrender myself to the peace
your reign will bring.
Mary, hope of Christians, pray for us.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Men's Day of Recollection November 22 2014

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM
Faithfully Accompanying the King of Kings

A Day of Recollection for Men in Honor of the 
Christ the King

The Sixteenth Annual Men’s Day of Recollection
sponsored by the Women’s Apostolate to Youth

for the sake of Christ’s little ones.

Director: Rev. Paul D. Scalia

Date: Saturday, Nov. 22

Time: 9:30am--2:00pm

Location: St. John the Beloved Catholic Church
 Beginning in the Parish Hall (located in the School),
 6420 Linway Terrace,
 McLean,VA 22101

Cost: $30 (lunch and materials included)

To Register: Send a check  (payable to WAY)

 by Nov. 18
 to:  Vivian Zini
 5022 Veronica Rd.
 Centreville, VA 20120

Friday, May 30, 2014

WAY's Annual Novena to the Holy Spirit in Anticipation of Pentecost

Each year the Women's Apostolate to Youth offers a Novena to the Holy Spirit in anticipation of Pentecost.  In light of our 2014-2015 study of St. Catherine of Siena, this year we offer our Novena through her intercession on behalf of all priests, and in particular the priests of the Diocese of Arlington.  We encourage you to join us in prayer.

May God bless our nation with an abundance of good and holy priests.

Melissa



A NOVENA FOR HOLY CHURCH
AND HER BELOVED PRIESTS

With Texts from St. Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue and
The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, Trans. by Suzanne Noffke, O.P. (New York: Paulist Press)



GENERAL INTENTION: That through the intercession of the Blessed Mother and St. Catherine of Siena, the Lord in His mercy will grant to our beloved priests a mighty outpouring of the purifying power of the Holy Spirit for the reform of Holy Church and the renewal of her mission to the world.

NOVENA PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit, Overflowing Well of Living Water, and drench the troubled hearts of our faithful priests in an endless stream of prayer. Bear them up in this time of trial on waves of gratitude and grace.
Come, Pentecostal Flame, and sear with a burning zeal for holiness the tepid hearts of those priests who have made peace with the world. Dissolve in the white heat of your love every self-indulgent impulse, every hint of indifference and every trace of complacency.
Come, Wind of Heaven, and free from the haze of confusion those priests whose minds have been darkened by dissent or whose hearts are paralyzed by fear of public rebuke. Grant them clarity of vision, strength of soul and the courage they need to cherish the Gospel and speak the truth to error.
Come, Lord and Giver of Life, raise from the dead the adulterous hearts of those priests who have sinned gravely and betrayed their Bride, Holy Church. Remove from their eyes the grave cloth of self-justification so that they may see the true nature of their deeds and come quickly to repentance.
Come, Comforter of the Afflicted, and heal the broken hearts of the faithful, whose trust in their shepherds has been shattered by scandal. Bring the healing that comes with forgiveness to those who have been injured and hope to their embittered souls.
Come, Pillar of Cloud, and lead the shepherds of this your flock safely through the desert of disgrace and perplexity in which they now find themselves. Shield them from the temptation to compromise in the face of unremitting criticism and strengthen their anguished hearts with the manna of wisdom, fidelity and courage.

Holy Virgin Catherine, we call upon you to appeal once again to all Heaven for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the reform of the clergy and the renewal the sacred mission of Holy Church.

Mother of God, we beg you to intercede for us. With St. Michael and all the heavenly host, wage war against the evil one who seeks so relentlessly to destroy Holy Church by assaulting her priests, and wrest from this crisis a blessing beyond all imagining.  Amen.

DAY ONE

INTENTION: For our young and newly-ordained priests, that they will be filled by the Holy Spirit with zeal for the mission entrusted to them, advance quickly in virtue and be protected by the holy angels and the prayers of the faithful from every form of worldly temptation.

Catherine prays to the Father: O eternal Father, I remember your telling me once, when you were speaking of the ministers of holy Church, that at another time you would talk more at length about the sins these ministers are committing this very day. Therefore if it would please your goodness say something about this, so that I may have reason to intensify my sorrow and compassion and restless longing for their salvation. For I recall that you have already said that through the suffering and tears
and sorrow, the sweat and constant prayers of your servants, you would refresh us by reforming the Church with good and holy ministers. Therefore I make my petition so that this may grow in me.

Then God eternal looked on her with mercy. He did not spurn her desire but accepted her petition. Wishing to fulfill this last request that she had made because of his promises, 

he said:

O dearest daughter whom I so love! I will fulfill your desire in what you have asked of me only if you for your part will not be foolish or indifferent. . . . Make it your concern, then, to offer prayers for all people and for the mystic body of holy Church and for those I have given you to love with a special
love. Do not be guilty of indifference about offering prayers and the example of your living and the word of teaching. Reprove vice and commend virtue. Do all this to the greatest extent of your power.
[The Dialogue #108-109]

St. Catherine:

O Godhead! Godhead!
Eternal Godhead!. . . .
You are a fire always burning.
Yet, though you always consume
all that the soul possesses apart from you,
you never consume the things that are pleasing to you.
Burn with the fire of your Spirit
and consume,
root out from the bottom up,
every fleshly love and affection
from the hearts of the new plants
you have kindly seen fit
to set into the mystic body of holy Church.
Transplant them
away from worldly affection,
and give them a new heart
with true knowledge of your will.
Make them despise the world
and themselves
and selfish love.
Fill them with your love’s true fervor
and make them zealous for faith and virtue.
And so,
once they have left behind
the false desires and pretenses
of this passing world,
let them follow you alone
in purest purity and glowing charity. (Prayer 7)

NOVENA PRAYER (see above)

DAY TWO

INTENTION: For the Catholic faithful, that they will not lose heart in the face of scandal but will be inspired through the promptings of the Holy Spirit to pray ever more fervently for the Holy Father, for their priests and for the success of the mission of Holy Church.

Christ speaks to Catherine: You will recall that I already told you I would fulfill your desire by giving
you refreshment in your labors, that I would satisfy your anguished longings by reforming holy Church through good and holy shepherds. I will do this, as I told you, not through war, not with the sword and violence, but through peace and calm, through my servants’ tears and sweat. I have set you as workers in your own and your neighbors’ souls and in the mystic body of holy Church. In yourselves you must work at virtue; in your neighbor and in the Church you must work by example and teaching. And you must offer me constant prayer for the Church and for every creature, giving birth to virtue through your neighbors. . . . Never cease offering me the incense of fragrant prayers for the salvation of souls, for I want to be merciful to the world. With your prayers and sweat and tears I will wash the face of my bride, holy Church. [The Dialogue, #86]

St. Catherine:

To you, O heavenly doctor,
my soul’s boundless love,
I sigh mightily. . . .
I cry out to you:
wait no longer,
but through the merits of this pilot of your ship--
St. Peter, I mean--with the fire of charity
and the deep abyss of eternal wisdom
come to the aid of your bride
who is waiting for help. . . .
O worker of peace,
guide this ship into the port of peace
and direct your servants toward yourself
so that the darkness may be lifted
and the dawn may appear--
the dawn which is the light
of those who have been planted in your Church
out of pure desire for the salvation of souls. . . .
So listen to us
as we pray for the guardian of this chair of yours. . . .
Make your vicar whatever sort of successor you would have him be
to your dear elder Peter,
and give him what is needed for your Church.
I am the witness
that you have promised to grant my desires soon;
with even more confidence then
I beg you to wait no longer
to fulfill these promises, O my God. (Prayer 8)

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY THREE

INTENTION: That the Holy Father will receive from the Holy Spirit the strength, courage and wisdom needed to restore confidence in the Church and effect reforms in the priesthood.

God speaks to Catherine: O dearest daughter, I have told you all this so that you may better know how I have dignified my ministers, and thus grieve the more over their wickedness. If they themselves had considered their dignity, they would not have fallen into the darkness of deadly sin nor muddied the faced of their souls. Not only have they sinned against me and against their own dignity, but even had they given their bodies to be burned they would not have been able to repay me for the tremendous grace and blessing they have received, for it is impossible to have a greater dignity than theirs in this life.  They are my anointed ones and I call them my “christs,” because I have appointed them to be my ministers to you and have sent them like fragrant flowers into the mystic body of holy Church. No angel has this dignity, but I have given it to those men whom I have chosen to be my ministers. I have sent them like angels, and they ought to be earthly angels in this life. [The Dialogue, #113]

St. Catherine:

I acknowledge, eternal God. . .
that you see me and know me. . . .
and I see
that you see your bride’s need
and your vicar’s good will.
But who is keeping him
from making it effective by doing something?
In your light I have seen
that you know these things,
for nothing is hid from your eyes. . . .
You saw too within yourself
that, even after you had freed us from our sickness,
we would still fall into sin every day
because of our weakness.
So you gave us help for this in the sacrament of holy penance,
where the minister pours over the soul’s face
the blood of the humble Lamb.
Just as you saw that our chief help
lay in reconciling us to yourself
through the Word,
so also you saw all these other helps
we would need for our salvation. . . .
I beg you, then:
Since you breathe into the spirits of your servants
eager and blazing desires
for the reform of your bride
and make them cry out with continual prayer,
listen to their cry.
Preserve and intensify your vicar’s good will,
and let the true perfection you require of him
be realized in him. (Prayer 14)

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY FOUR

INTENTION: That through the power of the Holy Spirit our priests will be strengthened in the virtue of chastity, that they will embrace their call to be celibate and find in their vocations the fulfillment of every worthy desire.

God speaks to Catherine: I demand purity and charity of every soul, a charity that loves me and others, and helps others in whatever way it can, serving them in prayer and loving them tenderly. But much more do I demand purity in my ministers, and that they love me and their neighbors, administering the body and blood of my only-begotten Son with burning love and hunger for the salvation of souls, for the glory and praise of my name.  Just as these ministers want the chalice in which they offer this sacrifice to be clean, so I demand that they themselves be clean in heart and soul and mind. I want them to keep their bodies, as instruments of the soul, in perfect purity. I do not want them feeding and wallowing in the mire of impurity, nor bloated with pride in their hankering after high office, nor cruel to themselves and their neighbors--for they cannot abuse themselves without abusing their neighbors. If they abuse themselves by sinning, they are abusing the souls of their neighbors. [The Dialogue,#113]

St. Catherine:

I beg you to guide toward yourself
the heart and will of the ministers of holy Church, your bride,
so that they may follow you,
the Slain Lamb,
poor, humble and meek,
along the way of the most holy cross--
in your way, not their own.
Let them be angelic creatures,
earthly angels in this life,
for they must administer the body and blood
of your only-begotten Son, the spotless Lamb.
Let them not be senseless beasts,
for beasts are irrational and are not worthy of this.
Bring them together now
and wash them, divine compassion,
in the calm sea of your goodness,
so that they may not dawdle any longer,
losing what time they do have
for the time they do not have. (Prayer 2)


NOVENA PRAYER

DAY FIVE

INTENTION: That the Blessed Virgin Mary will intervene in a decisive way to guide the Holy Father and the hierarchy in this time of trial and that selfless devotion to the Immaculate Conception and to the triumph of her Immaculate Heart will permeate the priesthood.

God speaks to Catherine: I have already told you that I have made [Christ] a bridge for you so that all
of you would be able to reach your goal. But in spite of all this, . . . people do not trust me, though I want nothing other than their sanctification. It is to this end, with great love, that I give and permit everything. But they are always scandalized in me, and I support and bear with them in great patience
because I loved them without their ever loving me. And they are forever hounding me with great impatience and hatred, with complaining and infidelity. They with their blinded vision want to set themselves up as investigators of my hidden judgments, which are made justly and out of love. And they do not yet even know themselves, so they see falsely. For those who do not know themselves do
not know me or my justice in truth. 

Referring to someone who had apparently been condemned to death by the authorities, God continues: I want you to know that I permitted this to happen to rescue him from the sentence of eternal damnation under which he stood, so that he might have life through his own blood in the blood of my Truth, my only-begotten Son. For I had not forgotten the reverence and love he had for Mary, my only-begotten Son’s most gentle mother. For my goodness, in deference to the Word, has decreed that anyone at all, just or sinner, who holds her in due reverence will never be snatched or devoured by the infernal demon. She is like a bait set out by my goodness to catch my creatures. So it was in mercy that I did this. (The Dialogue, #138-139]

St. Catherine:

To you, I appeal, Mary,
and to you I offer my petition
for the dear bride of Christ your most gentle Son
and for his vicar on earth.
May he be given light
so that he may
with discernment
take the necessary steps
to reform holy Church.
May the people be united
and their heart conformed with his,
so that they may never rise up against their head.
It seems to me, eternal God,
that you have made him an anvil,
for many people are striking him
with their tongues
and, as much as they can, with their actions.
(Prayer 8)

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY SIX

INTENTION: That an increased fervor for the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, may become
the basis for an authentic reformation of the clergy and a new evangelization of the laity.  

God speaks to Catherine: I want you to know that [my ministers] give you incomparably more than you give them, for there is no comparison between the finite and passing things with which you help them, and myself, God, who am infinite and have appointed them in my providence and divine charity to minister to you. With all your material possessions you could never repay the incomparable spiritual gifts you receive--not only this mystery, but everything whatever that is administered to you by anyone as a spiritual favor, whether through prayer or any other means. [The Dialogue,#113]

St. Catherine:

And how, gentlest love,
do you want me to contemplate myself in you?
You want me to contemplate your gift to me--
your gift of creation in your image and likeness.
In that creation,
supreme eternal purity,
you joined yourself with the mire of our humanity.
You were driven
by the fire of your charity,
and with that same fire
you left yourself as food.
And what food is this?
Food of the angels,
supreme eternal purity!
This is why you want and demand such purity
of the soul who receives this most sweet sacrament--
such purity
that if it were possible for the angelic nature
to be purified
(a nature that has no need of purification),
such a great mystery
would demand that it be purified.
And how shall the soul be purified?
In the fire of your charity
and by washing her face
in the blood of the only-begotten Son.
O my wretched soul!
How dare you approach such a great mystery
without purification?
(Prayer 12)

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY SEVEN

INTENTION: That the true dignity of the priesthood will once again be recognized and restored.

God speaks to Catherine: [I]f you should ask me why I said that this sin of those who persecute holy
Church is graver than any other sin, and why it is my will that the sins of the clergy should not lessen
your reverence for them, this is how I would answer you: Because the reverence you pay to them is not
actually paid to them but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry. If this were
not so, you should pay them as much reverence as to anyone else, and no more. It is this ministry of
theirs that dictates that you should reverence them and come to them, not for what they are in themselves but for the power I have entrusted to them, if you would receive the holy sacraments of the
Church. For if you refuse these when it is in your power to have them, you would live and die condemned.

So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me. . . . And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence. . . . For this reason no one has excuse to say, “I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church. I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.” Such persons are
deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness. They see well enough, but they pretend not to
see so as to blunt the pricking of conscience. If they would look, they could see that they are persecuting not these ministers, but the blood. It is me they assault, just as it was me they reverenced.
To me redounds every assault they make on my ministers: derision, slander, disgrace, abuse. Whatever
is done to them I count as done to me. [The Dialogue, #116]

St. Catherine:

We blind ourselves, then,
when we put over our eyes that cloud of cold and damp,
our selfishness.
When we do this
we know neither you
nor any true good.
We call good evil
and evil good.
And so we become ungrateful
and most ignorant.
And it is worse for us to lose the light
once we have known the truth,
than before we had received the light.
Such false Christians are worse than unbelievers. . . .
People such as these, my Lord,
are persecutors of the fruit of your cross,
persecutors of your blood.
They do not follow you, Christ crucified,
but they hound you and your blood--
especially those who rebel against your cellarer
who holds the keys to the wine cellar
where your precious blood is stored. . . .
They get into this rebellion
and every sort of sin
because they have lost the light of your truth,
the light acquired through faith in you.
(Prayer 24)

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY EIGHT

INTENTION: For those priests who have fallen into grave sin and betrayed the grace of their ordination and the trust of their flocks--and for those bishops who refused to call them to account--that they may truly repent and receive the grace of conversion; and for the victims of clerical abuse, that justice will be done and the wounds inflicted on them will be healed.

God speaks to Catherine: Now you see how blind people are, especially these wretches [faithless
priests], because they have received more from me and been more enlightened by Holy Scripture, they
are so much the more obligated. So they reap more unbearable confusion. Because they knew more of
Holy Scripture in their lifetime, in death they know more clearly how greatly they have sinned and are
allotted greater torment than others, just as the lot of good [ministers] is more magnificent. . . .

But these wretches do not know this. For if they had the least regard for their position they would never have come to such an evil pass. They would have been what they should have been. But they are not. Indeed, the whole world is corrupt, and they behave much more badly than their worldly peers. With their filthiness they defile the face of their own souls and corrupt their subjects and suck the blood of my bride, holy Church. By their sins they have left her pallid. The loving charity they ought to have had for this bride they lavished on themselves, thinking of nothing but snitching her grapes one by one, taking her high offices and lucrative positions when they should have been seeking after souls. Thus their evil lives lead the laity (though they are not thereby excused) to irreverence and disobedience toward Holy Church. [The Dialogue, #132]

Catherine prays to the Father: Oh, you are a good shepherd to have given us your only-begotten Son
to be our true shepherd who in obedience to you laid down his life for your little sheep and made of his
blood a bath for us. It is this blood that your servants, hungry as they are, are asking for at this door.
They are asking you through this blood to be merciful to the world and make holy Church blossom
again with the fragrant flowers of good and holy shepherds whose perfume will dispel the stench of
the putrid evil flowers.

You said, eternal Father, that because of your love for your creatures and through the prayers and innocent sufferings of your servants, you would be merciful to the world and reform holy Church, and thus give us refreshment. Do not wait any longer, then, to turn the eye of your mercy. Because it is your will to answer us before we call, answer now with the voice of your mercy. . . . To you Eternal Father, everything is possible. [ The Dialogue, #134]

NOVENA PRAYER

DAY NINE

INTENTION: For the grace to persevere in prayer for our priests and to trust, never doubting, that
through the the power of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the
angels and saints, the suffering endured by the Faithful in this time of trial will be transformed into a
glorious victory for Christ and His bride, Holy Church.

Christ speaks to Catherine: I tell you. . . the more the mystic body of holy Church is filled with
troubles now, the more it will abound in delight and consolation. And this shall be its delight: the reform of good holy shepherds who are flowers of glory, who praise and glorify my name, offering me the fragrance of virtue rooted in truth. This is the reform of the fragrant blossoming of my ministers and shepherds--not that the fruit of this bride needs to be reformed, because it never spoils or is diminished by the sins of its ministers. So be glad, you and your spiritual father and my other servants, in your bitterness. For I, eternal Truth, promise to refresh you, and after your bitterness I will give you consolation along with great suffering, in the reform of holy Church. [The Dialogue, #12]

St. Catherine:

And you,
dearest children,
since we are committed,
it is time to work for Christ’s Church,
the true mother of our faith.
So I urge you
who have already been planted in this Church to be like pillars for her.
Let all of us together,
having cast off all selfish love and laziness,
work for that in this garden of saving faith
with the fervor of prayer
and with our deeds,
that we may perfectly fulfill the will of God eternal,
who has called us to this
for our own salvation
and that of others,
and for the unity of this Church
in which is our souls’ salvation.
Amen.
(Prayer 8)

NOVENA PRAYER