Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Photo by Loci B. Lenar

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

V. Lord, have mercy on us.

R. Christ, have mercy on us.

V. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.

R. Christ, graciously hear us.

V. God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, united substantially to the Word of God.

Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty.

Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God.

Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High.

Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven.

Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity.

Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love.

Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love.

Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues.

Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise.

Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts.

Heart of Jesus, in whom art all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Heart of Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.

Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father was well pleased.

Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received.

Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills.

Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy.

Heart of Jesus, rich to all who call upon Thee.

Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness.

Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our offenses.

Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with reproaches.

Heart of Jesus, bruised for our iniquities.

Heart of Jesus, obedient even unto death.

Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance.

Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation.

Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection.

Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation.

Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins.

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee.

Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee.

Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints.

V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,

R. spare us, O Lord.

V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,

R. graciously hear us, O Lord.

V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,

R. have mercy on us.

V. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart,

R. Make our hearts like unto Thine.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end.

The above prayer can be found on Catholic websites.  For a selection of other prayers, please visit the following link: Devotional Prayers 

The photograph of the stained glass window detail can be seen inside of Our Lady of the Lake Church. The Catholic church is located in Sparta, NJ, USA.

Photograph Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar
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Archdiocese of Chicago opens canonization cause for first African-American priest

The photograph and following excerpt regarding Father Augustus Tolton is posted on the Catholic News Agency:

Chicago archdiocese opens canonization cause for first African-American priest : Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Chicago, Illinois (CNA) - Fr. Augustus Tolton, a man born into slavery who became the first American diocesan priest of African descent, is now being considered for canonization. Cardinal Francis George announced on Monday that the nineteenth century priest’s cause for sainthood has been introduced in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“Many Catholics might not ever have heard of Fr. Augustus Tolton; but black Catholics most probably have,” the Archbishop of Chicago wrote.

Born in Missouri on April 1, 1854, John Augustine Tolton fled slavery with his mother and two siblings in 1862 by crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois.

The young Tolton entered St. Peter’s Catholic School with the help of the school’s pastor, Fr. Peter McGirr. Fr. McGirr would later baptize him and instruct him for his first Holy Communion. Tolton was serving as an altar boy by the next summer.

The priest asked Tolton if he would like to become a priest, saying it would take twelve years of hard study.

The excited boy then said they should go to church and pray for his success.

After graduating from high school and Quincy College, he began his ecclesiastical studies in Rome because no American seminary would accept him on account of his race.

On April 24, 1886 he was ordained in Rome by Cardinal Lucido Maria Parocchi, who was then the vicar general of Rome. Newspapers throughout the U.S. carried the story.

Fr. Tolton was ordained for the southern Illinois Diocese of Quincy. Upon his return in July 1886, he was greeted at the train station “like a conquering hero,” the web site of St. Elizabeth’s Parish says.

Hundreds waited at the local church where people of all races knelt at the communion rail.

Fr. Tolton served in Quincy before going to Chicago to start a parish for black Catholics. The new church was named for St. Monica and opened in 1893.

On July 9, 1897 Fr. Tolton collapsed during a hot day and died from sunstroke at the age of 43. Cardinal George explained that most priests in the nineteenth century died before their fiftieth birthday.

“Visiting the sick on a daily basis was risky in an age before antibiotics,” he explained.

The priest was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery just outside of Quincy, Illinois.

An investigation for canonization will collect evidence of Fr. Tolton’s heroic virtues and will investigate claims of his miraculous intercession.

Our Lady of Medjugorje's Message of March 2, 2010

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

March 2, 2010 Message on the Day for Nonbelievers - Medjugorje.com

The following message is from Our Lady of Medjugorje as conveyed to visionary Mirjana Soldo:

“Dear children, in this special time of your effort to be all the closer to my Son, to His suffering, but also to His love with which He bore it, I desire to tell you that I am with you. I will help you to triumph over the errors and temptations with my grace. I will teach you love, love which wipes away all sins and makes you perfect, love which gives you the peace of my Son now and forever. Peace with you and in you because I am the Queen of Peace. Thank you.”

***

The above stained glass window detail can be seen inside of Saint Mary's Church, Denville, NJ, USA.
 
Photograph Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar 

Miraculous Stories of Archangel Michael's Intervention

The Church of St. Michael, Netcong, New Jersey

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

Archangel Michael is recognized for being the defender of the church and protector of God's people.  From the website of the Saint Michael Parish, located in Bedford, MA, you will find numerous stories regarding the intervention of Archangel Michael.

SAINT MICHAEL PARISH, BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS

Constantinople, 337 A.D.

At Constantinople Michael was considered both a heavenly physician and a military protector. The Emperor Constantine the Great attributed his brilliant victory over the pagan Emperor Maxentius to the assistance of Saint Michael, and in gratitude built a magnificent church in Sosthenion, some 50 miles south of Constantinople. He dedicated it to the archangel and called it the Michaelion. In 337 Michael appeared to Constantine at this sanctuary, saying: "I am Michael, the chief of the angelic legions of the Lord of hosts, the protector of the Christian religion, who whilst thou wast battling against godless tyrants, placed the weapons in thy hands." The Michaelion became the scene of many miracles and a place of pilgrimage. Many sick and infirm were cured in it. The sick often slept in this church at night waiting for a manifestation of the archangel.

Monte Gargano, Italy, 493 A.D.

Another apparition of the archangel occurred at Monte Gargano (since renamed Monte Sant'Angelo) in the kingdom of Naples. It is said he showed himself there to the Bishop of Siponto in the year 493 and produced another spring of curative waters. In this apparition, "St. Michael intimated to the bishop that the place was under his protection and that it was his will that God should be worshipped there, in honor of himself and the angels." It is also said that the archangel left his red cloak there when he departed.

A sanctuary, the Santurio di San Michele, was built over the caverns where Michael had appeared. In this sanctuary the Lombards of Sipontum (now called Manfredonia) proclaimed that their May 8, 663 victory over the Greek Neapolitans was due to Michael's intercession.

Today in Gargano, the Santurio (also known as the Basilica of St. Michele Arcangelo) remains a place of devotion and a pilgrimage site. The small fountain in the grotto (actually a small opening in the rocks) is said to still retain its miraculous powers.

Marazion, England, 495 A.D.

St. Michael's Mount, a rocky island called Ictis by the ancient Romans, dominates the bay between Lands End and Lizard Point in West Cornwall. Legend says that in 495 Saint Michael, standing on a ledge on the western side of the island, appeared to Cornish fishermen and hermits to ask that a church be built on the summit. Edward the Confessor founded a Benedictine abbey on the Mount in 1044. A 14th Century castle stands there today.

Rome, 600 A.D.

During a plague which greatly depopulated the city of Rome, Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) ordered a penitential procession in which he himself carried a statue of the Blessed Virgin. As the procession reached the bridge across the Tiber, the singing of angels was heard. Suddenly Gregory saw an apparition of a gigantic archangel, Michael, descending upon the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian. In his right hand, Michael held a sword, which he thrust into its scabard. Gregory took the vision as an omen that the plague would stop, which it did, and so he renamed the mausoleum the Castel Sant' Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel) in Michael's honor.

Avranches, France, 708 A.D.

In France, Saint Michael is the patron of mariners. His statue atop Mont Saint-Michel on the Normandy coast is visible far out to sea. In the year 708 the archangel is said to have appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, three times in the bishop's dreams. Each time he commanded Aubert to erect a monastery on a rocky outcrop that rose from the sea a mile off the beach. Aubert obeyed: the site was named Mont-Saint-Michel and the famous sanctuary was built there. Inspired by this famous sight twelve centuries later, Henry Adams wrote in his best-selling book "Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres," that "the Archangel loved heights. Standing on the summit of the tower that crowned his church, wings upspread, sword uplifted, the devil crawling beneath, and the cock, symbol of eternal vigilance, perched on his mailed foot, Saint Michael held a place of his own in heaven and on earth. . . . His place was where the danger was greatest."

Monte Pirchiriano, Italy, 987 A.D.

Just east of Turin, high above an Alpine pass connecting Italy and France, sits a Benedictine abbey known as “La Sacra di San Michele, una abbazia costruita dagli angeli” (“Consecrated by Saint Michael, an abbey made by angels”). The abbey is built around a church which was built around three ancient chapels atop Monte Pirchiriano. The church was built in 987 A.D. by Saint Giovanni Vincenzo after a dream in which Michael and other angels appeared, asking him to build a church and marking its location with a vision of flames on the summit of the mountain (hence the mountain's name, Pirchiriano, meaning “the Lord’s fire”). According to local legend, the first chapel on the site was built into the rock by Michael and his angels around 400 A.D. and the other two chapels were added soon thereafter.

France, 1429

In Fifteenth Century France, Joan of Arc was inspired and urged on to otherwise impossible feats by "voices" coming out of a blaze of light which she identified as those of St. Michael and other angels and saints. It was in vain that she resisted them, saying: "I am a poor girl; I do not know how to ride or fight." The voices only reiterated: "It is God who commands it." She went into battle and was supposedly guided by Michael in her brilliant campaign against the English during the Hundred Years' War.

Mexico, 1631

In April, 1631, Saint Michael visited Tlaxcala, Mexico. On three separate occasions he appeared there to a local Indian, Diego Lazaro by name, and commanded him to "Make my message known." The message was an announcement of a new spring of water, infused and aglow with the "virtue of God." The story handed down to us tells that Diego overcame his initial reticence with difficulty and finally carried out the angel's request. The water soon became famous for its miraculous curative powers. Pilgrims still visit this holy water well, and the statue of Saint Michael, both of which are located at the basilica in the Nativitas district of San Miguel del Milagro (Saint Michael's Miracle), about 40 miles east of Mexico City.

The Vatican, 1884

One day, after celebrating Mass, the aged Pope Leo XIII was in conference with the Cardinals when suddenly he sank to the floor in a deep swoon. Physicians who hastened to his side could find no trace of his pulse and feared that he had expired. However, after a short interval the Holy Father regained consciousness and exclaimed with great emotion: "Oh, what a horrible picture I have been permitted to see!" He had been shown a vision of the activities of evil spirits and their efforts against the Church. But in the midst of the horror the archangel Michael appeared and cast Satan and his legions into the abyss of hell. Soon afterwards the pope composed the following prayer to Saint Michael:

Latin: Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude.

English: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

Photograph of Archangel Michael Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar

Miraculous Icon: Archangel Michael of Mantamados

The following story and photographs regarding the Miraculous Icon of Archangel Michael can be found on OrthodoxWiki.org at the following link:

Archangel Michael of Mantamados - OrthodoxWiki

Archangel Michael of Mantamados (Gr. O Μανταμάδος) refers to a miraculous icon of the Archangel Michael on the island of Lesvos and is one of the four miraculous icons of the Archangel in the Dodecanese of Greece. The monastery is known locally as Taxiarches (the "Archangel") and the feast of the icon is celebrated on November 8 (the Synaxis of the Bodiless Powers) and September 6 (the Miracle at Colossae).

There are two accounts surrounding the date of this icon, one having to do with the Ottoman Turkish occupation and destruction of 1462, and the other with Saracen pirates during the 9th and 10th centuries during which the entire island was invaded.

In either case, the story of the creation of the icon shares the theme that the target of the raids was the monastery of the Taxiarchis. The pirates threatened the monks with death if they would not reveal the whereabouts of the hidden villagers. The monks refused and the invaders slaughtered all of the monks except for one novice-monk.

As the pirates where leaving, the novice climbed to the roof of the monastery to be sure that the pirates had left. However, the pirates noticed him from afar and returned to kill him as well. It is at this point in the story that the Archangel Michael makes his appearance in front of the Saracens with his own sword drawn forcing them to retreat in terror. Thanks to this miracle from the Archangel the monk survived and descending to the courtyard buried the bodies of his fellow brotherhood.

The monk still in deep respect and reverence for having witnessed the Archangel Michael in all his fury, gathered up the earth that was red by the blood of the martyred monks and shaped it into the icon-sculpture of the Archangel as it is today; while it was still vivid in his memory. According to legend, the monk did not have enough of this dirt-blood mix and so the head of the Archangel has turned out disproportionately larger to the rest of his body.

This icon, is now kept within the interior of the church. Many islanders claim to have had personal experiences of miracles being granted for them by Mantamados. This is evident by the numerous cabinets full of tagmata (gifts) to the Archangel housed inside the church. To this day, pilgrims to this church have mixed emotions regarding this icon. At times, the expression on the icon can appear severe, sad, or happy, according to the message that the Archangel wants to convey to that pilgrim or the faithful. This is the tradition of the much-celebrated icon of Mantamados.

On the island of Lesvos, one can visit this miraculous icon at the Byzantine Monastery of the Taxiarchis (Archangel) Michael in the district of Mantamados. This monastery is situated in the northeast part of Lesvos, 36 km from Mytilini. The history of this monastery and the icon are closely connected to the history of the island of Lesvos.

This is a famous monastery, made of stone. The monastery was most probably abandoned in 1462 the year of the island’s occupation by the Ottoman Turks. In the past, the monastery functioned as a men’s convent and is first mentioned in a 1661 ecclesiastical document. The small church within the monastery originally dates from the 17th century but was replaced by larger church in the 18th century. The present church (cathedral) was constructed in 1879 and follows a three-aisled basilica architectural type. The monastery is structured para-metrically around this church.

The Transfiguration of Jesus

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

The Transfiguration

Matthew 17:1-9 

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.  But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

The Coming of Elijah 

Matthew 17:10-13

The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"

Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

***

The stained glass window can be seen inside of St. Peter the Apostle Church, Parsippany, NJ, USA.  

To view my photographs, please visit the following link: Stained Glass Window Gallery - a photoset by Loci Lenar on Flickriver

Photograph Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar

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