The Dauphin Kneels for the Blessed Sacrament

September 25, 2014

Louis, son of Louis XV and Dauphin of France, was riding in a carriage with his sisters and wife on one of Paris’s boulevards, when he came across a small procession that was bringing the Blessed Sacrament to the house of a sick person. The prince ordered his carriage to stop, and joined by the other passengers he got out and followed the procession on foot. Arriving at the house, Prince Louis knelt devoutly at the sick person’s side, staying on his knees until the Viaticum had been administered.

 Jacques Necker, Galerie de l’ancienne cour (Maestricht: J. E. Dufour, 1787), Vol. 3, p. 157

FOUR SPECIAL FAVORS

    The graces which Our Lord promises to those who are devoted to the
sorrows of His Blessed Mother are very great. St. Alphonsus, in his
discourse on the dolors of Mary, states: It was revealed to St. Elizabeth
[of Hungary] that some years after the Blessed Virgin was assumed into
Heaven, St. John, the beloved disciple, was seized with an ardent desire to
see her again. This favor was granted him. His dear Mother appeared to him
in company with our Divine Lord. Then St. John heard Mary asking of her Son
some special graces for those who were devoted to her dolors. Our Lord
promise the four following graces:

1. Those who invoke the Heavenly Mother through her sorrows will obtain
true sorrow for their sins before death.
2. Our Saviour will protect them in their tribulations, especially at the
hour of death.
3. He will impress upon them the memory of His Passion, and will reward
them for it in Heaven.
4. He will commit such devout servants to the hands of Mary, that she may
dispose of them according to her pleasure, and obtain for them all the
graces she desires.

    Besides these great graces, Father Faber enumerates others which are
obtained through devotion to Mary's sorrows:

    This devotion has a remarkable connection with great interior holiness.

    It reveals the emptiness of worldly joys. Worldliness finds no soul
harder to attack than one entrenched in the sorrows of our Blessed Lady.
The world can graft itself upon nothing in this devotion.

    It gives us a permanent share in the sorrow for sin which Jesus and
Mary felt.

    It keeps our thoughts close to Jesus Christ, and to Him Crucified.

    It communicates to our souls the spirit of the Cross and gives us
strength to endure our own sufferings with resignation to the holy Will of
God.

    This devotion is wholly covered with the Precious Blood of Jesus and
leads us directly into the depths of the Heart of our Saviour.

    Anyone who during his lifetime has cherished compassion for this
afflicted Mother may consider this as a most assured sign of
predestination.

The above is taken from Chapter 2 of the booklet "Devotion to the Sorrowful
Mother" published by TAN

“A dark mass that half fills a hermetically sealed four-inch glass container, and is preserved in a double reliquary in the Naples cathedral as the blood of St. Januarius, liquefies 18 times during the year.... This phenomenon goes back to the 14th century.... Tradition connects it with a certain Eusebia, who had allegedly collected the blood after the martyrdom.... The ceremony accompanying the liquefaction is performed by holding the reliquary close to the altar on which is located what is believed to be the martyr's head. While the people pray, often tumultuously, the priest turns the reliquary up and down in the full sight of the onlookers until the liquefaction takes place.... Various experiments have been applied, but the phenomenon eludes natural explanation. There are, however, similar miraculous claims made for the blood of John the Baptist, Stephen, Pantaleon, Patricia, Nicholas of Tolentino and Aloysius Gonzaga—nearly all in the neighborhood of Naples” (Catholic Encyclopedia).

 


"Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself to acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession" (St. Joseph of Cupertino, from the reading for his feast in the Franciscan breviary).

THE CONSOLER OF THE SUFFERING SOULS

    Dominica Clara of the Holy Cross, who died in the reputation of
sanctity in 1897, was often favored with apparitions of the souls in
Purgatory. One of these souls told the servant of God that she (the soul)
owed her salvation solely to her devotion to the sorrows of Mary. Her life
had been so wicked that without a special grace from God she could not
possibly have been saved, but Mary leaves nothing unrewarded that is done
in her honor.

    During life this person had felt a tender compassion for the Mother of
Sorrows, and whenever she beheld an image representing the Dolorous Mother,
she prayed the Hail Mary seven times in her honor. She admitted, however,
that often she had practiced this devotion more from custom than from
interior devotion; for her pious mother had implanted it so deeply in her
heart that, despite her wayward life, she had always remained faithful to
it. As a reward for this slight veneration, the Mother of God showed
special maternal solicitude for her at the hour of death, recalling to her
mind the image of her Seven Sorrows in so vivid a manner that in her last
moments the penitent was seized with most profound contrition for her
sinful life. For this reason she obtained the remission of all her sins.
    According to the information imparted by this soul, the sorrow she felt
for her sins, through the intercession of the Mother of Sorrows, was so
great that it expiated not only her sins but also a great part of the
temporal punishment due to them. In addition to this incomparably great
grace, the soul, while in Purgatory, was consoled by frequent visits of the
Mother of God, each of which mitigated her sufferings. Her torments ceased
entirely during the time the Blessed Virgin was personally present.

    Thousands and thousands of souls, she asserted, who had not committed
one twentieth as much evil as she, were eternally lost. "Ah," she
exclaimed, "how lively are my sentiments of gratitude when I consider what
our dear Heavenly Mother did for me in the last moments of my life! Had it
not been for Mary, I too should have shared the fate of the reprobates. For
all eternity shall my tongue proclaim the love, the goodness, the
solicitude of this sweet Virgin; unceasingly shall my voice glorify her
with canticles of praise and thanksgiving."

    Dominica Clara of the Holy Cross writes further that many who are
especially devoted to the Sorrowful Mother are scarcely detained in
Purgatory at all, and are deprived only for a short time of the vision of
God.

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The above is taken from Chapter 2 of the booklet "Devotion to the Sorrowful
Mother" published by TAN Books

 

THE MOTHER OF MERCY

    Devotion to the sorrows of Mary should be practiced especially by souls
who wish to rid themselves of sinful habits. This devotion nourishes the
spirit of compunction, affords great consolation, strengthens confidence in
God's mercy, draws down the special protection of the Blessed Mother in the hour of temptation, and preserves the converted sinner from relapsing into sin.

    The Mother of God once said to her faithful servant St. Bridget: "No
matter how numerous a person's sins may be, if he turns to me with a
sincere purpose of amendment I am prepared forthwith to  receive him
graciously, for I do not regard the number of sins he has committed, but
look only upon the dispositions with which he comes to me; for I feel no
aversion in healing his wounds, because I am called and am in truth the
Mother of Mercy."

    "Poor abandoned sinners," exclaims St. Alphonsus Liguori, "do not
despair! Raise your eyes to Mary and be comforted, trusting in the clemency of this good Mother. For she will rescue you from the shipwreck you have suffered and conduct you to the haven of salvation."

    The Mother of Sorrows likewise lends her gracious assistance in
bringing back to the True Fold those who, unhappily, have been separated
from the household of the Faith.

    The great apostleship of prayer which was organized in England for the
conversion of that country invoked Mary as the Mother of Sorrows. The
fruits of that society were formerly so great that annually ten thousand or
more Protestants returned to the True Fold. Anyone who will but try this
devotion will experience that the Blessed Virgin will not leave a single
Hail Mary unrewarded.

    Those who implore her aid in virtue of her sufferings may confidently
expect her assistance. It seems that this devotion is destined by Heaven to avert God's punishment from sinful mankind, or at least to mitigate it.

---------

The above is taken from Chapter 2 of the booklet "Devotion to the Sorrowful
Mother"

 ST. ROSE OF VITERBO:

Rose achieved sainthood in only 18 years of life. Even as a child Rose had a great desire to pray and to aid the poor. While still very young, she began a life of penance in her parents’ house. She was as generous to the poor as she was strict with herself. At the age of 10 she became a Secular Franciscan and soon began preaching in the streets about sin and the sufferings of Jesus.

Viterbo, her native city, was then in revolt against the pope. When Rose took the pope’s side against the emperor, she and her family were exiled from the city. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was allowed to return. Her attempt at age 15 to found a religious community failed, and she returned to a life of prayer and penance in her father’s home, where she died in 1251. Rose was canonized in 1457.

Comment:
The list of Franciscan saints seems to have quite a few men and women who accomplished nothing very extraordinary. Rose is one of them. She did not influence popes and kings, did not multiply bread for the hungry and never established the religious order of her dreams. But she made a place in her life for God’s grace, and like St. Francis before her, saw death as the gateway to new life.

Quote:
Rose's dying words to her parents were: "I die with joy, for I desire to be united to my God. Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious."