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Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

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“God asks of you two things only: one is that you love Him; and the other is that you love your neighbor. That, therefore, is what we have to work at; by accomplishing these two things faithfully we shall do His will and be united with Him.” She states our goal there; how shall we be sure of reaching it? “The most certain indication by which to know whether we practice those two things faithfully,” continues the Saint, “is, to my mind, the indication that we have a sincere and real love for our neighbor. For we cannot with certainty know how far our love for God goes, even though there may be large signs for judging that; but we see much more clearly in what concerns love of neighbor. It is therefore extremely important for us to consider well what our disposition of soul is, and what our outward conduct is, in regard to our neighbor. If everything is perfect in one and in the other, then we can be reassured, for, considering the depravity of our nature, we could ever love our neighbor perfectly if there were not within us a great love of God.”

— Blessed Columba Marmion in his book, “Christ, the Life of the Soul” quoting St. Teresa of Avila, (“Interior Castle,” Fifth mansion, c. 3.)

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Our Lord gave Sister Mary a short but powerful prayer called’ ‘The Golden Arrow,” by which a person can “shoot directly into the Heart of God” to heal the wounds inflicted on it by the malice of sinners. Of the 9 promises connected with this devotion, the first three are:

1) “By My Holy Face you will work miracles;”

2) “By My Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners;”

3) “Nothing you ask in making this offering will be refused to you.”

This devotion brought St. Therese to her great sanctity. Anyone who is searching for a spiritual method for fighting atheism, socialism, materialism and paganism and its programs and/or who is searching for a virtually infallible method of prayer will be delighted with The Golden Arrow devotions.

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ACT OF REPARATION FOR ALL THE OUTRAGES WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS SUFFERED IN HIS HOLY FACE 

I adore Thee, and I praise Thee, O m y divine Jesus, Son of the living God, for all the outrages Thou hast endured for me, who am the most miserable of Thy creatures, in all the sacred members of Thy body, but especially in the most noble part of Thyself, that is to say, in Thy Face. I salute Thee, amiable Face, wounded with blows and scourges, soiled with spittle and disfigured by the evil treatment which the impious Jews caused Thee to suffer. I salute you, O lovely eyes! all bathed in the tears you have shed for our salvation. I salute you, sacred ears, tormented by an infinity of blasphemies, injuries and shameful mockings. I salute you, O holy mouth! filled with grace and sweetness towards sinners, and made to drink of vinegar and gall by the monstrous ingratitude of those whom Thou hadst chosen to be Thy people. In reparation for all these ignominies, I offer Thee all the homage which has been rendered Thee in the holy place where Thou hast willed to be honoured by the special devotion to which I unite myself with my whole heart. Amen.

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"This is how you pray continually: not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so your life becomes a continued and uninterrupted prayer."

~St. Basil The Great

(Icon via etsy)

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“I understood that all striving for perfection and all sanctity consist in doing God’s will. Perfect fulfillment of God’s will is maturity in sanctity; there is no room for doubt here. To receive God’s light and recognize what God wants of us and yet not do it is a great offense against the majesty of God. Such a soul deserves to be completely forsaken by God. It resembles Lucifer, who had great light, but did not do God’s will. An extraordinary peace entered my soul when I reflected on the fact that, despite great difficulties, I had always faithfully followed God’s will as I knew it. O Jesus, grant me the grace to put Your will into practice as I have come to know it, O God.”

— St. Faustina, Diary 666

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Prayer of a Penitent Sinner I fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, who alone are good.

Although my misery is great, and my offenses are many, I trust in Your mercy, because You are the God of mercy; and, from time immemorial, it has never been heard of, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed.

O God of compassion, You alone can justify me, and You will never reject me when I, contrite, approach Your Merciful Heart, where no one has ever been refused, even if he were the greatest sinner.

–St. Faustina, Diary 1730

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“Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy.”

— Jesus Christ to St. Faustina, “Diary” (excerpted from) 699

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Palm Sunday, Mk 11:1-10

And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. If any one says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. And those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from leafy fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”

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“March 21,1937. Palm Sunday. During Mass, my soul was steeped in the bitterness and suffering of Jesus. Jesus gave me to understand how much He suffered in that triumphal procession. “Hosanna” was reverberating in Jesus’ heart as an echo of “Crucify.” Jesus allowed me to feel this in a special way.”

— St. Faustina, Diary 1028 (via burning-lampstand)

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“Palm Sunday. This Sunday, I experienced in a special way the sentiments of the most sweet Heart of Jesus. My spirit was there where Jesus was. I saw Jesus riding on a donkey’s foal, and the disciples and a great multitude with branches in their hands joyfully accompanying the Lord Jesus. Some strewed them before His feet where He was riding, while others raised their branches in the air, leaping and jumping before the Lord and not knowing what to do for joy. And I saw another crowd which came out to meet Jesus, likewise with joyful faces and with branches in their hands, and they were crying unceasingly with joy. There were little children there also. But Jesus was very grave, and the Lord gave me to know how much He was suffering at the time. And at that moment, I saw nothing but only Jesus, whose Heart was saturated with ingratitude.”

— St. Faustina, Diary 642

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“April 10, 1938. Palm Sunday. I attended Holy Mass, but did not have the strength to go and get the palm. I felt so weak that I barely made it till the end of Mass. During Mass, Jesus gave me to know the pain of His soul, and I could clearly feel how the hymns of ‘Hosanna’ reverberated as a painful echo in His Sacred Heart. My soul, too, was inundated by a sea of bitterness, and each ‘Hosanna’ pierced my own heart to its depths. My whole soul was drawn close to Jesus. I heard Jesus’ voice: “My daughter, your compassion for Me refreshes Me. By meditating on My Passion, your soul acquires a distinct beauty.””

— St. Faustina and Jesus Christ, Diary 1657 (via burning-lampstand)

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“A Child is born. To some He comes on this Christmas Day, even in the remorse that follows ‘there is no room’; to some He comes when their hearts are saddened by a life that has been taken away, and can be gladdened only by a Life that is given; to some He comes when their hearts like conscious mangers cry out ‘Lord, I am not worthy’; to others He comes as their study of science reminds them that the only star worth studying is the Star that leads to the Maker of the Stars; to others He comes when their hearts are broken, that He might enter in to heal with wings wider than the world; to others He comes in joy amidst the Venite Adoremus of the angels; to others He comes because they are so young they can never remember another Christmas – but to each and everyone He comes as if He had never come before in His own sweet way, He the Child who is born, He, Jesus the Savior, He Emmanuel, He, Christ at Christ’s Mass on Christmas – Merry Christmas!!”

— Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Fullness of Christ)

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Merry Christmas The Nativity of the Lord

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16).

“Christmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence.” Pope Benedict XVI

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