OCTOBER 2
Feast of The Guardian Angels

It is the teaching of the Church, and in accordance with what we read in the Old and New Testaments, that the angels, who are divine messengers, exercise a particular care and protection over individuals on earth, and help them in attaining salvation. In Exodus (20:20), the Lord God told Moses, “I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared,” and after the angel had liberated St. Peter from prison, the latter remarked, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue me from Herod’s clutches” (Acts 12:11). The common teaching of theologians is that every human being, not merely the baptized, has a special guardian angel from birth, and this they derive from Christ’s words: “Do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father, who is in Heaven” (Matt. 18:10.) Referring to the same text, St. Basil (see January 2) writes: “Every one of the faithful has an angel standing at his side as educator, and guide, directing his life” (Against Eunomius III, 1). Devotion to the angels began with St. Benedict (see July 11) and then steadily increased from the time of St. Gregory the Great (see September 3) to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (see August 20), who was perhaps the most eloquent exponent of devotion to the Guardian Angels. The final prayer in today’s Mass speaks of the angels keeping us free from danger in this life and bringing us to the joy of eternal life. A feast in honor of the Guardian Angels was celebrated in Valencia, Spain, as early as 1411; it then spread through Spain and into France. Pope Paul V introduced it into the Roman Calendar in 1608, and Pope Clement X later (1670) set its celebration for October 2.

For some 300 years now, the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels has been celebrated in the Catholic Church on October 2. Few things, however, have become as alien to the contemporary Christian as the concept of guardian angels. The Old Testament says of the angel that guards the people of Israel: “Heed him and hearken to his voice”—that means that I should become open to this image of a God who is everywhere around me and that I should not stubbornly oppose to him my own fleeting wishes and whims. It is based on the fact that we ourselves have become manipulatable and believe in no other design for our life than that which we have made for ourselves. In consequence, we end by becoming the movable scenery of a technical world that we try to maneuver this way and that. We no longer speak, then, of guardian angels, except perhaps in a few idiomatic expressions that even we ourselves do not take too literally. Granted, we speak all the more frequently about security and about how we can protect ourselves against the negative aspects of modern life. The flight of humanity from humanity as from its own work is on the increase, and we come to recognize the inadequacy of our protective devices—however sophisticated they may be—only when new refinements reveal that they have already been superseded. It would, of course, be foolish and unrealistic on our part to place our trust in guardian angels rather than in technology; the divine protection is not so easily commandeered and is not intended to be thrown into bold relief. Speaking of angels means being convinced that the world is everywhere filled with the divine presence of God and that his presence is bestowed on each and every one of us as a power that summons and protects us.

Ratzinger, J. (1992).

Litany to the Holy Angels

The Consecration to the Holy Angels

More reading on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

and

The Cross is Sacrament Book

Jesus embraces the Cross

Eighteenth Hour

The Hours of the Passion

My tortured Good, with You I repair, with You I suffer.  But I see that Your enemies hurl You down the stairs; the people await You with fury and eagerness; they make You find the Cross ready, which You long for with many sighs.  And You—with Love You gaze on It, and with firm step You approach It and embrace It.  But first You kiss It, and as a shiver of Joy runs through Your Most Holy Humanity, with highest contentment You gaze on It again, measuring Its length and breadth.  In It, already, You establish the portion for each creature.  You dower them all, enough to bind them to the Divinity with a bond of Marriage, and make them heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Then, unable to contain the Love with which You Love them, You kiss the Cross again, and say, “Adored Cross, finally I embrace you.  You were the longing of My Heart, the martyrdom of My Love.  But you, O Cross, have delayed until now, while My steps were always toward you.  Holy Cross, you were the goal of My desires, the purpose of My Existence down here.  In you I concentrate My whole Being, in you I place all My children, and you will be their Life, their Light, defense, custody and strength.  You will assist them in everything, and will bring them gloriously to Me in Heaven.  O Cross, Pulpit of Wisdom, you alone will teach True Sanctity; you alone will form the heroes, the athletes, the martyrs, the Saints.  Beautiful Cross, you are My Throne, and since I have to leave the earth, you will remain in My place.  To you I give all souls as dowry—keep them, save them; I entrust them to you!”

In saying this, eager, You let It be placed upon Your Most Holy Shoulders.  Ah, my Jesus, the Cross is too light for Your Love, but the weight of our sins unites to that of the Cross—enormous and immense, as the expanse of the Heavens.  And You, my wearied Good, You feel crushed under the weight of so many sins.  Your soul is horrified at their sight, and feels the pain of each sin.  Your Sanctity remains shaken before so much ugliness, and as the Cross weighs upon Your shoulders, You stagger, You pant, and a mortal sweat creeps through Your Most Holy Humanity.  Oh please, I pray you, my Love—I don’t have the heart to leave You alone—I want to share the weight of the Cross with You; and to relieve You from the weight of sins, I cling to Your Feet.  I want to give You, in the name of all creatures, love for those who do not love You, praises for those who despise You, blessings, thanksgivings, obedience on behalf of all.  I promise that in any offense You receive, I intend to offer You all of myself in reparation, to do the acts opposite to the offenses the creatures give You, and to console You with my kisses and continuous acts of love.  But I see that I am too miserable; I need You to be able to really Repair You.  Therefore I unite myself to Your Most Holy Humanity, and together with You I unite my thoughts to Yours in order to Repair for the evil thoughts—mine, and of all; my eyes to Yours, to Repair for the evil glances; my mouth to Yours, to repair for the blasphemies and the evil discourses; my heart to Yours, to repair for the evil tendencies, desires and affections.  In a word, I want to Repair everything that Your Most Holy Humanity Repairs, uniting myself to the Immensity of Your Love for all, and to the Immense Good You do to all.  But I am not yet content.  I want to unite myself to Your Divinity, and I dissolve my nothingness in It, and in this way I give You Everything.  I give You Your Love to quench Your bitternesses; I give You Your Heart to relieve You from our coldness, lack of correspondence, ingratitude, and the little love of the creatures.  I give You Your Harmonies to cheer Your hearing from the deafening blasphemies It receives.  I give You Your Beauty to relieve You from the ugliness of our souls, when we muddy ourselves in sin.  I give You Your Purity to relieve You from the lack of righteous intention, and from the mud and rot You see in many souls.  I give You Your Immensity to relieve You from the voluntary constraints into which souls put themselves.  I give You Your Ardor to burn all sins and all hearts, so that all may Love You, and no one may offend You, ever again.  In sum, I give You all that You are, to give You Infinite Satisfaction, Eternal, Immense and Infinite Love.

The Cross is Sacrament Book

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will
Day Thirty-One 

The Queen of Love:

Blessed daughter, how content I am. I could not decide to narrate to you My Departure for Heaven if I did not leave My daughter safe on earth, Endowed with Divine Will. But know that from Heaven I will not leave you—I will not leave you orphan; I will Guide you in everything, and from your smallest need, up to the greatest—call Me, and immediately I will Come to you to Act as your Mama.

Now, dear daughter, listen to Me. I was already infirm with Love. The Divine Fiat, in order to console the Apostles, and also Myself, allowed almost in a Prodigious Way that all the Apostles, except one, would surround Me like a crown at the moment I was about to depart for Heaven. All felt a blow to their hearts, and cried bitterly. I consoled them all; I entrusted to them, in a special way, the nascent Holy Church, and I imparted My Maternal Blessing to all, leaving in their hearts, by virtue of it, the Paternity of Love toward souls. My Dear Son did nothing but come and go from Heaven; He could no longer be without His Mama. And as I gave My last breath of Pure Love in the Endlessness of the Divine Will, My Son received Me in His arms and took Me to Heaven, in the midst of the Angelic Choirs that sang Praise to their Queen. I can say that Heaven emptied Itself to come to meet Me. All celebrated for Me, and in looking at Me, remained Enraptured and said in chorus: “Who is She, who comes from the exile, all cleaving to Her Lord—All Beautiful, All Holy, with the Scepter of Queen? And Her Greatness is such that the Heavens have lowered themselves to receive Her. No other creature has entered these Celestial Regions so Adorned and Striking—so Powerful as to hold Supremacy over everything.”

Now, My daughter, do you want to know who She is—for whom the whole of Heaven sings Praise and remains Enraptured? I am She who never did Her own will. The Divine Will Abounded so much with Me as to Extend Heavens More Beautiful, Suns More Refulgent, Seas of Beauty, of Love, of Sanctity, such that I could give Light to all, Love and Sanctity to all, and Enclose everything and everyone within My Heaven. It was the Work of the Divine Will Operating in Me that had accomplished such a Great Prodigy; I was the only creature entering Heaven, who had Done the Divine Will on earth As It is Done in Heaven, and who had formed Its Kingdom in My Soul. Now, in looking at Me, the whole Celestial Court was Amazed, because as they looked at Me, they found Me Heaven; and returning to look at Me, they found Me Sun; and unable to remove their gaze from Me, looking at Me more deeply, they saw Me Sea, and found in Me also the most clear earth of My humanity, with the Most Beautiful Flowerings. And, Enraptured, they exclaimed: “How Beautiful She is! She has everything Centralized within Herself—She lacks nothing. Among all the Works of Her Creator, She is the only Complete Work of the whole Creation.”

Now, blessed daughter, you must know that this was the First Feast made in Heaven for the Divine Will, which had worked so many Prodigies in Its creature. So, at My Entrance into Heaven, the whole Celestial Court celebrated that which, Beautiful and Great, the Divine Fiat can Operate in the creature. Since then, these Feasts have never been repeated, and this is why your Mama Loves so much that the Divine Will Reign in souls in an Absolute Way: to give It the field in order to let It repeat Its Great Prodigies and Its Marvelous Feasts.

 Transfiguration, Transubstantiation, and the Transmutation

In the Divine Will

From The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom – Day Thirteen

The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will departs for the Temple and gives example of total Triumph in the Sacrifice

My child, courage, do not fear; your Mama is all for you, and today I was waiting for you so that my heroism and my triumph in the sacrifice might infuse in you strength and courage, and I might see my child triumphant in her pains, with the heroism of bearing them with love and in order to do the Divine Will.

Now, my child, listen to Me. I had just turned three years old when my parents let Me know that they wanted to consecrate Me to the Lord in the temple. My heart rejoiced in hearing this – about consecrating Myself and spending my years in the house of God. But beneath my joy there was a sorrow: the privation of the dearest persons one can have on earth – my dear parents. I was little, I needed their

paternal cares; I was depriving Myself of the presence of two great saints. Moreover, I saw that as the day approached on which they were to deprive themselves of Me, who rendered their lives full of joy and of happiness, they felt such bitter sadness as to feel they were dying. But though suffering, they were disposed to make the heroic act of taking Me to the Lord.

My parents loved Me in the order of God, and considered Me a great gift, given to them by the Lord. This gave them the strength to make the painful sacrifice. Therefore, my child, if you want to have an invincible strength to suffer the hardest pains, let all of your things be in the order of God, and hold them as precious gifts given to you by God.

Now, you must know that I prepared Myself with courage for my departure for the temple, because, as I delivered my will to the Divine Being and the Supreme Fiat took possession of my whole being, I acquired all virtues as nature. I was dominator over Myself; all virtues were in Me like many noble princesses, and according to the circumstances of my life, they promptly showed themselves, to fulfill their office without any resistance. In vain would they have called Me Queen, had I not possessed the virtue of being Queen over Myself. I had in my dominion perfect charity, invincible patience, enrapturing sweetness, profound humility, and the whole endowment of the other virtues. The Divine Will rendered the little earth of my humanity fortunate, always flowery, and without thorns of vices.

Do you see then, dear child, what it means to live of Divine Will? Its light, Its sanctity and power convert all virtues into nature; nor does It lower Itself to reign in a soul where there is a rebellious nature – no, no! It is sanctity, and It wants nature to be ordered and holy where It must reign.

Therefore, by my sacrifice of going to the temple, it was conquests that I made; and over this sacrifice, the triumph of a Divine Will was formed within Me. These triumphs brought new seas of grace, of sanctity and of light into Me – to the extent of feeling happy in my very pains, in order to be able to conquer new triumphs.

Now, my child, place your hand upon your heart, and tell your Mama: do you feel your nature changed into virtue? Or, do you feel the thorns of impatience, the noxious herbs of agitation, the bad humors of affections which are not holy? Listen – let your Mama do it; place your will into my hands, determined in not wanting it any more, and I will let you be possessed by the Divine Will. It will banish everything from you, and all that you have not done in many years, you will do in one day, which will be the beginning of true life, of happiness and of sanctity.

St. Benedict is believed to have been born around 480, as the son to a Roman noble of Norcia and the twin to his sister, Scholastica.

In the fifth century, the young Benedict was sent to Rome to finish his education with a nurse/housekeeper. The subject that dominated a young man’s study then was rhetoric — the art of persuasive speaking. A successful speaker was not one who had the best argument or conveyed the truth, but one who used rhythm, eloquence, and technique to convince. The power of the voice without foundation in the heart was the goal of the student’s education. And that philosophy was reflected in the lives of the students as well. They had everything — education, wealth, youth — and they spent all of it in the pursuit of pleasure, not truth. Benedict watched in horror as vice unraveled the lives and ethics of his companions.

Afraid for his soul, Benedict fled Rome, gave up his inheritance and lived in a small village with his nurse. When God called him beyond this quiet life to an even deeper solitude, he went to the mountains of Subiaco. Although becoming a hermit was not his purpose in leaving, there he lived as a hermit under the direction of another hermit, Romanus.

One day, during his time living in a cave above a lake as a hermit, the Devil presented Benedict’s imagination with a beautiful, tempting woman. Benedict resisted by rolling his body into a thorn bush until it was covered in scrapes. It is said through these body wounds, he cured the wounds of his soul.

After years of prayer, word of his holiness brought nearby monks to ask for his leadership. He warned them he would be too strict for them, but they insisted — then tried to poison him when his warning proved true. The story goes, the monks attempted to poison Benedict’s drink, but when he prayed a blessing over the cup – it shattered.

So Benedict was on his own again — but not for long. The next set of followers were more sincere and he set up twelve monasteries in Subiaco where monks lived in separate communities of twelve.

He left these monasteries abruptly when the envious attacks of another hermit made it impossible to continue the spiritual leadership he had taken.

But it was in Monte Cassino he founded the monastery that became the roots of the Church’s monastic system. Instead of founding small separate communities he gathered his disciples into one whole community. His own sister, Saint Scholastica, settled nearby to live a religious life.

After almost 1,500 years of monastic tradition his direction seems obvious to us. However, Benedict was an innovator. No one had ever set up communities like his before or directed them with a rule. What is part of history to us now was a bold, risky step into the future.

Benedict had the holiness and the ability to take this step. His beliefs and instructions on religious life were collected in what is now known as the Rule of Saint Benedict — still directing religious life after 15 centuries.

In this tiny but powerful Rule, Benedict put what he had learned about the power of speaking and oratorical rhythms at the service of the Gospel. He did not drop out of school because he did not understand the subject! Scholars have told us that his Rule reflects an understanding of and skill with the rhetorical rules of the time. Despite his experience at school, he understood rhetoric was as much a tool as a hammer was. A hammer could be used to build a house or hit someone over the head. Rhetoric could be used to promote vice … or promote God. Benedict did not shun rhetoric because it had been used to seduce people to vice; he reformed it.

Benedict did not want to lose the power of voice to reach up to God simply because others had use it to sink down to the gutter. He reminded us “Let us consider our place in sight of God and of his angels. Let us rise in chanting that our hearts and voices harmonize.” There was always a voice reading aloud in his communities at meals, to receive guests, to educate novices. Hearing words one time was not enough — “We wish this Rule to be read frequently to the community.”

Benedict realized the strongest and truest foundation for the power of words was the Word of God itself: “For what page or word of the Bible is not a perfect rule for temporal life?” He had experienced the power of God’s word as expressed in Scripture: “For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).

For prayer, Benedict turned to the psalms, the very songs and poems from the Jewish liturgy that Jesus himself had prayed. To join our voices with Jesus in praise of God during the day was so important that Benedict called it the “Work of God.” And nothing was to be put before the work of God. “Immediately upon hearing the signal for the Divine Office all work will cease.” Benedict believed with Jesus that “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God’ ” (Matthew 4:4).

But it wasn’t enough to just speak the words. Benedict instructed his followers to practice sacred reading — the study of the very Scriptures they would be praying in the Work of God. In this lectio divina, he and his monks memorized the Scripture, studied it, and contemplated it until it became part of their being. Four to six hours were set aside each day for this sacred reading. If monks had free time it “should be used by the brothers to practice psalms.” Lessons from Scripture were to be spoken from memory not read from a book. On Benedict’s list of “Instruments of Good Works” is “to enjoy holy readings.”

In one story of Benedict’s life, a poor man came to the monastery begging for a little oil. Although Benedict commanded that the oil be given, the cellarer refused — because there was only a tiny bit of oil left. If the cellarer gave any oil as alms there would be none for the monastery. Angry at this distrust of God’s providence, Benedict knelt down to pray. As he prayed a bubbling sound came from inside the oil jar. The monks watched in fascination as oil from God filled the vessel so completely that it overflowed, leaked out beneath the lid and finally pushed the cover off, cascading out on to the floor.

In Benedictine prayer, our hearts are the vessel empty of thoughts and intellectual striving. All that remains is the trust in God’s providence to fill us. Emptying ourselves this way brings God’s abundant goodness bubbling up in our hearts, first with an inspiration or two, and finally overflowing our heart with contemplative love.

Benedict died on 21 March 543, not long after his sister. It is said he died with high fever on the very day God told him he would. He is the patron saint of Europe and students.

Feast Day of SAINT BENEDICT
Abbot

From The Book of Heaven

Volume 25 – 10.10.28
Then, as I am near my Jesus in the Sacrament, every morning there is benediction with the Most Holy One, and while I was praying my sweet Jesus to bless me, moving in my interior, He told me: “My daughter, I bless you with my whole Heart; even more, I bless my very Will in you, I bless your thoughts, breaths and heartbeats, that you may think always about My Will, may breath It continuously, and My Will alone may be your heartbeat. And for love of you I bless all human wills, that they may dispose themselves to receive the Life of my Eternal Volition. Dearest daughter of mine, if you knew how sweet it is, how happy I feel in blessing the little daughter of My Will…. My Heart rejoices in blessing she who possesses the origin, the Life of Our Fiat, which will bring about the beginning, the origin of the Kingdom of my Divine Will. And while I bless you, I pour in you the beneficial dew of the light of my Divine Volition which, making you all shining, will make you appear more beautiful to my sacramental gazes; and I will feel happier in this cell, gazing at my little prisoner daughter, invested and bound by the sweet chains of My Will. And every time I bless you, I will make the Life of my Divine Volition grow in you. How beautiful is the company of one who does my Divine Will. My Will brings into the depth of the soul the echo of everything I do in this Holy Host, and I do not feel alone in my acts – I feel that she is praying together with Me; and as our supplications, our sighs, unite together, we ask for one same thing – that the Divine Will be known and that Its Kingdom come soon.”

Volume 25 – 11.4.28
After this, benediction was given with the Most Holy Sacrament, and I prayed Him from the heart to bless me; and Jesus, moving in my interior, echoing what Jesus in the Sacrament was doing, raised His blessed right hand in the act of blessing me, and told me: “My daughter, I bless your heart, and I seal my Divine Will in it, so that your heart, united with my Divine Will, may palpitate in all hearts, so that you may call all hearts to love It. I bless your thoughts, and I seal my Divine Will in them, that you may call all intelligences to know It. I bless your mouth, so that my Divine Will may flow in your voice, and you may call all human voices to speak about my Fiat. I bless all of you, my daughter, so that everything may call my Divine Volition in you, and you may run to all in order to make It known. O! how much happier I feel in operating, praying, blessing in one in whom My Will reigns. In this soul I find my life, the light, the company; and everything I do arises immediately, and I see the effects of my acts; and I am not alone if I pray, if I operate, but I have company, and one who works together with Me. On the other hand, in this sacramental prison, the accidents of the host are mute, they say not a word to Me, I do everything on my own, I feel not a sigh which would unite to mine, nor a heartbeat which would love Me. On the contrary, there is the cold of a sepulcher for Me, which not only keeps Me in prison, but buries Me, and I have no one to whom to say a word, nor anyone with whom to pour Myself out; because the host does not speak, I am always in silence, and with divine patience I wait for hearts that receive Me, so as to  break my silence and enjoy a little bit of company. And in the soul in whom I find my Divine Will I feel Myself repatriated in the Celestial Fatherland….”

Fiat!

Today we celebrate the birthday of St. John the Baptist – one of three birthdays in the Catholic liturgical calendar, the others being that of the Lord Jesus Christ  Himself and of His Blessed Mother. It is interesting to note that St. John the Baptist’s birthday comes just as the days are starting to get shorter (in the Northern Hemisphere), whereas Christ’s birthday comes just as they are starting to get longer:   “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).

From the Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will – Meditation 1 – After many days of travel, finally I arrived in Judea, and I hastened to the house of Elisabeth. She came toward Me in feast. At the greeting I gave her, marvelous phenomena occurred. My little Jesus exulted in My womb, and fixing little John in the womb of his mother with the Rays of His Divinity, He Sanctified him, gave him the use of Reason, and made known to him that He was the Son of God. And John leaped so vigorously with love and with joy that Elisabeth was shaken. Touched by the Light of the Divinity of My Son, she too recognized that I had become the Mother of God; and in the emphasis of her love, trembling with gratitude, she exclaimed:
“Whence comes to me so much honor, that the Mother of my Lord would come to me?” I did not deny the highest mystery; rather, I humbly confirmed it. Praising God with the song of the Magnificat – sublime canticle, through which the Church continuously honors Me – I announced that the Lord had done great things in Me, His servant, and that because of this, all peoples would call Me Blessed.
My child, I felt devoured with the desire to pour out the flames of love that consumed Me, and to reveal My Secret to Elisabeth, who also longed for the Messiah to come upon earth. A secret is a need of the heart which is revealed, irresistibly, to persons who are capable of understanding each other.
Who can ever tell you how much good My visit brought to Elisabeth, to John, and to their whole household? Everyone was Sanctified, filled with Gladness, felt unusual Joys, and comprehended things unheard-of. John, in particular, received all the Graces which were necessary for him, to prepare himself to be the Precursor of My Son.

FIAT!!!