Rogation Days

"Hitherto, you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full "(John 16:24).

What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? It means praying with confidence based on our Lord's infinite merits. Why we should pray in the name of Jesus? We pray to God asking for favours, blessings, graces and it is very good and right way to present our needs to Him, Who mercifully provide for all our needs and on Whom depends our very existence for He sustains all. Therefore we address our petitions to the Almighty and omnipotent God and needless to say we cannot even comprehend His real Power and Might. We are but dust. We can ever have enough confidence to ask for favours from all powerful God, offering Him in return our own good works and merits, even of the greatest value in our own eyes? It might happen that they are not enough to win His attention and compassion. God is our Benefactor, therefore, we need to make sure our petition might be pleasing to Him even when offered with the utmost humility of a beggar: "The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds" (Ecclesiasticus 35:21). Prayer of supplication offered with humility and supported by infinite merits of our Lord can be pleasing and acceptable to God. This is based on His own words referring to Christ: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt 3:17). In Old Testament tradition, prayers were always offered supported by the merits of Patriarchs and Prophets - Moses prayed for Israelites who had fallen into idolatry in this way: "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants" (Exodus 32:13). His petition was granted: "And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people" (Exodus 32:14). The merits of God's only Son are infinite and of much more value than all the merits of Prophets and Patriarch of Old Testament (Matt 3:17). For this reason the prayers of the Church are always offered "through Christ, Our Lord". This is the best way to pray to the Father (John 16:24) and again recommended by St Paul: "He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?" (Rom 8:32)

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Feast of St John M. Vianney, Confessor (1786-1859).
Patron Saint of Parish Priests.

Today we have an opportunity to read testimonies of many pious people, including devout Chanoine Gardette, chaplain to the Carmel of Chalon-sur-Saone, describing the Cure of Ars prayer life, his ability of recollection and union with God amidst extremely busy life and duties of parish priest. All testimonies were taken during process of Beatification and are cited and commented upon in the well known and beloved book by Abbe Francis Trochu "The Cure of Ars":

"M. Vianney once expressed himself thus in my presence: 'Oh, how I wish I could lose myself, never again to find myself except in God!'. Well, watching him at work, one could see that his wish had been fulfilled. Indeed, he knew so well how to abandon himself to God's good pleasure that amid the manifold and laborious activities of his ministry he appeared as when engaged in his religious exercises. He always seemed but one thing to do - viz. the duty of the present moment. The keenness he displayed was that of apostolic zeal, never that of merely natural love of activity. Thus, whether one watched him on the morning, at noon, or at night, he invariably exhibited true liberty of spirit, meekness of disposition, and interior peace. It seems to me that here we have the realization of the ideal union with God - that is, the fullest possible development of perfect love." (said Chaplain Gardette.) We further read the comment made by Abbe Trochu: A soul united to God as to its centre may indeed perform a series of holy actions and yet not itself be holy. To avoid such a danger the Cure d'Ars constantly lifted up his heart to God - in the pulpit, in the confessional, in the midst of conversations and the most varied occupations. "He had acquired the habit of the saints, which consists in leaving God for active work, when this was required of him, and returning to God by prayer at the earliest possible moment." Prayer was the greatest joy of his soul and his habitual refuge. "Prayer is a fragrant dew," he used to say; "the more we pray, the more we love to pray." In fact, if all his life he longed so earnestly for solitude, it was that he might give himself up wholly to prayer and the contemplation of the things of God. Alas! the time had come when he could no longer give himself, as did his brother priests, even to the refreshing exercises of the annual retreat. On the very last occasion when he thus hoped to quicken his spirit - it was in 1835, at the Seminary of Brou - Mgr. Devie sent him back to his parish even before the opening exercise. "You have no need of a retreat," the prelate declared, "whereas over there sinners want you." And he went home without a word. There were times, however, when he was heard to groan as he remembered the far-off days when he lived in the solitude of the fields. "Oh, how happy I was then! Then my head was not racked as it is to-day; it was so easy to pray!" And he would add with a smile: " I believe my vocation was to remain a shepherd all my life." Yet when he became a priest - a shepherd of souls - he was able, at least during the first years, to indulge his holy passion for prayer. At that time he had assuredly attained to that exalted degree of prayer which is called "the prayer of simplicity," "where intuition replaces, for the most part, discourse or reasoning, where affections and resolutions vary but little and are expressed in but few words." "Before the great work of the pilgrimage began," says the Abbe Claude Rougement, vicaire of Ars, "according to the testimony of the old inhabitants, M.Vianney was for ever to be seen in church, on his knees, and praying without using a book." "His prayer was affective," says the Baronne de Belvey, " rather than made up of reflections and reasonings." He gazed at the tabernacle and never ceased from assuring our Lord that he loved him. In this he followed no other method than that of Pere Chaffangeon: "I look at the good God, and the good God looks at me." Frere Jerome declares in his turn that "when the influx of pilgrims put an end to his long hours of prayer, M. le Cure accustomed himself to choosing, in the morning, a subject of meditation to which he referred all the actions of the day." "I once asked him for advice on mental prayer," says the Abbe Dufour. "'I no longer have time for regular prayer,' was his answer 'but at the very first moment of the day I endeavour to unite myself closely to Jesus Christ, and I then perform my task with the thought of this union in mind.'" "From which I infer," adds M.Dufour, "that his life was one long prayer." In this way he concentrated the attention of his heart upon some scene of the life of our Lord, our Blessed Lady, or upon one of his favourite saints. His preferences were, however, for the sorrowful mysteries, and he usually accompanied our Lord throughout the divers phases of His Passion. That he might the more readily recall them to mind, he asked Catherine Lassagne to write them down in the margin of his Breviary, in this way, whilst reciting his Office, he lived over again, with tearful emotion, every one of the stages of the work of our redemption. As he walked among the crowds he frequently bore the appearance of one who feels quite alone, so deeply was he absorbed in holy considerations. Hence, whilst living a most active life, he ever remained the contemplative that he had wished to be. "That is real faith," he used to say, "when we speak to God as we would converse with a man." This ideal was fully realized in his own life.

To read fragments of St John Vianney - The Little Catechisms please follow the highlighted link Read whole post......

LENTEN DEVOTIONS

"Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly" (Joel 2:12-15).

"We beg you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled with God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Stations of the Cross - St Alphonsus Liquori
Stations of the Cross - St Francis of Assisi
Stations of the Cross with Carmelite Saints
Pictorial Stations of the Cross
Sacrament of Penance
Guide to examination of Conscience
Sample of Confession
Lent with Our Lady - collection of Marian meditations for Lent

St John Mary Vianney - The Little Catechism of Cure of Ars - Exhortations and Explanations

St John-Mary Vianney, 'Catechism on prayer'

Optional
Lent video collection Read whole post......

Pater Noster with Pope Pius XII

Meet the Pope - collection of videos Read whole post......

On recollection and necessity of prayer

In all thy ways think of Him, and He will direct thy steps (Prov 3:6)

The thoughts of God, the necessary foundation of the life of Faith.
In order to obtain this life of perfect faith it is not sufficient to renounce sensible sweetnesses; we must also, as far as possible, drive all profane objects and wordly cares from the mind, and nourish the soul assiduously on the mysteries of the faith; or, rather, the soul must feed on God - it must, in fact, inhale God and exhale Him. Respiration is necessary process of the natural life. This marvelous phenomenon, which fails to excite our admiration merely because it is so familiar to us, causes us to find in the atmosphere the salutary element which purifies our blood and sustains our vital heat and our life. If this necessary function is accomplished normally, it is because the body is healthy and the organs sound. If the air that we breathe is pure, dry, and buoyant, our health is maintained, or, if necessary, improved; if it is charged with humidity or putrid exhalations, the health is affected, and death may even ensue. God is the vivifying principle of the faithful soul. It must breathe Him constantly, must seek in Him - in the thought of Him and of His love, that is to say - the perpetual renewal of its spiritual life. And we can only exhale what we have previously inhaled; the air which issues from the lungs is equal in volume to that which has passed into them. So he alone who has drunk deep of the Divine sweetness can exhale God, breathing forth round about him the Divine perfume. And we give it out in the precise measure in which we have acquired it. If we content ourselves with some few daily aspirations, our spiritual life will be feeble and languishing; if we absorb the Divine fragrance at but rare intervals, how can we emit it freely day by day? Their error is great who think to continue in a state of union with God by conformity of the will while they lose sight of Him for considerable periods of time. They withdraw from Him insensibly; the atmosphere of their surroundings penetrates them by degrees; natural preoccupations invade their minds, absorb them, and become predominant; and the desire to serve God, without being destroyed, is thus restrained, and its exercise upon the actions becomes slight and intermittent. And so the spiritual life declines, and a purely natural, or even an entirely mundane, life may take its place. He who arrives at this extremity, he who has ceased to sustain his life in God, who no longer breathes anything but the vitiated air of the world, who in his conversations, thoughts, and sentiments inhales only the poisonous miasma of sin - what can such a one exhale but an impure and nauseating breath? Woe to those that approach him! for they run grave risk of being contaminated by this infection and of contracting his most foul disease.

credits:"On recollection and union with God" fragment of book chapter by Abbe Saudreau, and the accompanying picture is entitled ....."Prayer"

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