July – Month of the Precious Blood

The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.

“The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it.”

The Old Testament

Cain and Abel are making an offering. Abel’s sacrifice is pleasing to God, Cain’s is not. This gives rise to the sin of hatred, and fratricide is its resolution. The thirsting earth soaks up Abel’s blood as it shouts to heaven for vengeance. This shouting prefigured the scene on Calvary, where Christ’s Blood cried to heaven for the redemption of mankind.

Millenia pass, and now we see Israel oppressed by Egypt. God commands the people to kill a lamb and to sprinkle the doorposts with its blood; houses thus besprinkled are spared by the messenger of death. But where the doors are not reddened with the blood of the lamb, all male firstborn from king to slave die. This blood on the doorposts was a type of the Blood of Christ. Can the blood of a lamb save a man? No, but as a figure of the Redeemer’s Blood it certainly does. For when the Destroyer sees the thresholds of a human heart marked with Christ’s sacred Blood, he must pass by. And another soul is saved.

In a vision the prophet Isaias saw a man treading out grapes (in the Orient, trampling upon grapes in the wine-press was the usual means of extracting the juice). The prophet asked the man: “Why are your garments so red? “The wine-press I have trodden alone,” he answers, “because from the nations there is no one with me.” The trodder of the wine-press is Christ, His garments crimsoned by the Blood of redemption.

Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace , Pius Parsch

The New Testament

The Church reminds us of the first drops of blood that flowed for our redemption on the day when Jesus was circumcised.

It is night on Mount Olivet, and the moon is shining. We see the holy face crimsoned with blood during the agony in the garden.

Unhappy, despairing Judas casts the blood-money down in the temple. “I have betrayed innocent blood!”

In the scourging chamber we see the Lord in deepest humiliation; under raw strokes the divine Blood spurts out over the floor. Christ is led before Pilate. Pilate shows the blood-covered Body to the crowds: Ecce homo! We go through Jerusalem’s streets following the bloody footsteps to Golgotha. Down the beams of the Cross blood trickles. A soldier opens the sacred side. Water and Blood.

Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace , Pius Parsch

Symbols of the Precious Blood

Adam is sleeping an ecstatic sleep. God opens his side, removes a rib and forms Eve, the mother of all the living. But our view transcends this action and in spirit we behold the second, the divine Adam, Christ. He is sleeping the sleep of death. From His opened side blood and water flow, symbols of baptism and the Eucharist, symbols of the second Eve, the Church, the Mother of all the living. Through blood and water Christ willed to redeem God’s many children and to lead them to an eternal home.

At Jerusalem a service in Yahweh’s honor is taking place on the Day of Atonement. The high priest is making his annual entrance into the holy of holies to sprinkle the blood of bucks and bulls upon the covenant in expiation for the sins of the people. The Church shows us the higher meaning of this rite. Our divine High Priest Christ on the first Good Friday entered that Holy of Holies which is not made with hands nor sprinkled with the blood of bucks and bulls; there He effects, once and for all, with His own Blood man’s eternal redemption.

A finale. Holy Church transports us to the end. The heavenly liturgy is in progress. Upon the altar is the Lamb, slain yet alive, crimsoned by His own Blood. Round about stand the countless army of the redeemed in garments washed white in the Blood of the Lamb. Hosts of the blessed are singing the new canticle of redemption: “You have redeemed us out of every tribe and tongue and nation by Your Blood.”

Now from vision to present reality. How fortunate we are to have divine Blood so near to us, to offer it to the heavenly Father for the sins of the whole world!

Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace , Pius Parsch

Devotion to the Precious Blood

Devotion to the Precious Blood is not a spiritual option, it is a spiritual obligation, and that not only for priests, but for every follower of Christ. I really believe that one of the symptoms of modern society (and I would even include, sadly, modern Catholic society) one of the symptoms of a growing, gnawing secularism is the lessening and the weakening of devotion to the Precious Blood. Devotion, as we know, is a composite of three elements: It is first- veneration, it is secondly- invocation, and it is thirdly- imitation. In other words, devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain, is first of all to be veneration on our part, which is a composite of knowledge, love and adoration. We are to study to come to a deeper understanding of what those two casual words, Precious Blood, really mean.

I found this passage in the oldest document, outside of sacred scripture, from the first century of the Christian era – to be exact, from Pope St. Clement I, dated about 96 A.D. Says Pope Clement: “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world.”

To understand the meaning of the Precious Blood we must get some comprehension of the gravity of sin, of the awfulness of offending God, because it required the Blood of the Son of God to forgive that sin. We are living in an age in which to sin has become fashionable.

This veneration of the Precious Blood, which is the first element in our devotion to the Precious Blood means that we have a deep sensitivity to the awfulness of sin. Sin must be terrible. It must be awful. It must be the most dreadful thing in the universe. Why? Because it cost the living God in human form the shedding of His Blood.

Lord Jesus, You became Man in order by your Passion and Death and the draining of your Blood on the Cross, might prove to us how much You, our God, love us. Protect us, dear Jesus, from ever running away from the sight of blood. Strengthen our weak human wills so that we will not only not run away from the cross, but welcome every opportunity to shed our blood in spirit in union with your Precious Blood, so that, dying to ourselves in time we might live with You in Eternity. Amen

Excerpted from The Precious Blood of Christ, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

THE LITANY OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven,                                                               Have mercy on us.

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

God, the Holy Spirit,                                                                         Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God,                                                                       Have mercy on us.

 

Blood of Christ, only begotten Son of the Eternal Father,                  Save us.

Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God,                                               **

Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament,

Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony,

Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging,

Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns,

Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross,

Blood of Christ, price of our salvation,

Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness,

Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls,

Blood of Christ, stream of mercy,

Blood of Christ, victor over demons,

Blood of Christ, courage of martyrs,

Blood of Christ, strength of confessors,

Blood of Christ, bringing forth virgins,

Blood of Christ, help of those in peril,

Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened,

Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow,

Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent,

Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying,

Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts,

Blood of Christ, pledge of Eternal Life,

Blood of Christ, freeing souls from Purgatory,

Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor,

**Save us.

 

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,      Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,      Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,      Have mercy on us.

You have redeemed us, O Lord, in Your Blood – and made us, for our God, a Kingdom.

Let us Pray:

Almighty and Eternal God, You have appointed Your only begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by His Blood, grant, we beg of You, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of this present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in Heaven.  Through the same Christ  our Lord.   Amen.

 

Feast of The Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Divine Will

Luke 2:19: But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:35: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.

Luke 2:51: And he went down with them and came

to Nazareth and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus focuses mostly on His divine love for mankind and encourages our humility, gratitude, obedience, and adoration; devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary focuses on Mary’s love for God and encourages our emulating her humility, gratitude, obedience, and adoration. Mary as loving Mother of Jesus Who suffered for us; Mary as Mother of the Church; Mary as obedient daughter, Mary as our Gevirah (Queen Mother of Israel) — we ponder her interior life in each of these roles, consecrate ourselves to Jesus through her, make reparations for offending her as our Mother, ask her intercession for us with her Son, and emulate her as the model of Christian perfection.

The Feast of Candlemas, which commemorates Mary’s ritual Purification and her Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, sheds special light on the nature of devotion to her Immaculate Heart. The old man, Simeon, foretold that “a sword” shall pierce Mary’s heart, and meditating on the sorrows symbolized by that sword helps us to understand what Our Lord went through for us. We do this not only on Candlemas, but on the Feast of the Seven Sorrows, during all of Passiontide, as we make the Stations of the Cross, during August, which is devoted to the Immaculate Heart, during September, which is devoted to the Seven Sorrows, etc.

While, early on, of course, the Church Fathers wrote of Mary’s blessedness, purity, and sorrows, and our Saints — Dominic, Gertrude, Thomas Becket, Bridget, Bernardine of Siena, Louis de Montfort — have always had deep Marian devotions, it was after the apparitions of Mary experienced by St. Catherine Labouré at Rue Du Bac, Paris in 1830 that devotions specifically to Mary’s Immaculate Heart became formalized.

Specific Devotions

Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré standing on a globe, rays of light streaming from her fingers, enframed in an oval frame inscribed with the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The whole vision “turned” showing the back of the oval inscribed with the letter “M” entwined with a Cross, and the hearts of Jesus and Mary, the former surrounded with thorns, the latter pierced with a sword. 12 stars circled this oval frame. Mary told her to strike a medal in this form — a medal now known as the “Miraculous Medal” — and that all who wore it properly after having it blessed would receive graces. The wearing of the Miraculous Medal has become one of the most common devotions to the Immaculate Heart.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart became even more popularized after Mary’s appearing to the three young shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 (before the Russian Revolution), when she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart to prevent the spread of “the errors of Russia.” Eight years later, in 1925, Mary appeared to one of the visionaries — Lucia, who’d since become a nun — and requested reparations for the various ways in which her Immaculate Heart was offended — such as attacks against her Immaculate Conception, virginity and divine maternity, and for those who teach their children contempt of Mary or who insult her by desecrating her images.

To make these reparations, she asked that we do 5 things, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart:

• recite at least Five Decades of the Rosary every day
• wear the Brown Scapular
• offer our daily duty to God as an act of sacrifice (ie., make the Morning Offering)
• make Five First Saturdays of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart (see below)
• the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, must consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. Russia would be converted through this means, and a period of peace to be given to the world. If this is not done (and it hasn’t been done), Russia will “spread her errors throughout the world.” This consecration must be of Russia — not “the world,” but Russia by name.

The “First Saturdays of Reparation” was not a new devotion, but it was even more popularized after Our Lady appeared at Fatima. It consists of, on the first Saturday of each month for five consecutive months:

• going to Confession (may be 8 days before the Saturday as long as one stays in a state of grace)
• receiving the Eucharist
• praying 5 decades of the Rosary, including the Fatima Prayer
• “keeping her company” for 15 minutes while meditating on all of the Mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to her. This can be done by reading Scripture or other writings relevant to the Mysteries, meditating on pictures of the Mysteries, or simple meditation.

The promise given by Mary to those who make the First Saturday devotion is her assistance at the hour of their death.

Apparition of 13 June 1917

In Portugal the 13th of June is a great feast, the feast of St. Anthony of Lisbon, known to most Catholics as St. Anthony of Padua. This Franciscan miracle-worker was born in Lisbon and had entered religious life as a Canon Regular of the Holy Cross, residing first in Lisbon and then Coimbra,  before leaving the Portuguese order for the new Order of Friars Minor and a hope of martyrdom. It was, and is, THE children’s feast in Portugal, so the parents of Lucia naturally thought that the festivities at the parish church in Fátima would distract her from the appointment at the Cova. However, undismayed by this tactic Lucia and the Marto children proceeded to the apparition site to keep their noon day rendezvous.

When they arrived they found a small crowd awaiting them.

After having said the rosary with Jacinta and Francisco and other people who were present, we saw again the reflection of light nearing us, (we used to say it was lightening), and following, Our Lady on the holm oak as in May.

“Please tell me, Madam, what it is that you want of me?”

I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. And after each one of the mysteries, my children, I want you to pray in this way: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins , save us from the fire of hell. Take all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need. I want you to learn to read and write, and later I will tell you what else I want of you.

“Will you take us to heaven?”

Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart. 

“Must I remain in the world alone?”

Not alone, my child, and you must not be sad. I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.

The moment she said the last words, opening her hands, She transmitted to us, for the second time, the reflection of that intense light. In it we felt we were submerged in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which was rising to Heaven, and I in the part spreading over the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled with thorns which appeared to pierce it. We understood it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary offended by the sins of mankind, craving reparation.

The apparition then concluded as on the first occasion, with the Lady going off toward the east and disappearing in the “immensity of heaven.”

Despite the joy of those precious moments the sorrows of the children continued in the following weeks, moderated by the belief of very many at the Cova that day. They knew that something unusual had occurred – they saw the “lightening,” some perceived a certain dimming of the sun, others a little gray cloud that came and went as the apparition did and they believed. However, the difficulties with their families did not abate, especially with their mothers, who became genuinely alarmed that the events were not just continuing but expanding. To this was added the painful caution of the parish priest, that after all it might be real but of demonic origin.

 

Novena Honoring the Body and Blood of Christ

Click the picture to go to Novena

The day before his death on the Cross, Christ instituted the Eucharist in the Upper Room. He also offered bread and wine, which “in his sacred hands” (Roman Canon) became his Body and his Blood, offered in sacrifice. Thus he fulfilled the prophecy of the old covenant linked to Melchizedek’s sacrificial offering. For this very reason—the Letter to the Hebrews recalls—”he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (5:7-10). 

 

 

Offering of our human will to the Celestial Queen:

Offering of the human will to the Celestial Queen Most Sweet Mama, here I am, prostrate at the foot of Your Throne. I am Your little daughter, I want to give You all my filial love, and as Your daughter, I want to braid all the little sacrifices, the ejaculatory prayers, my promises to never do my will, which I have made many times during this month of Graces. And forming a crown, I want to place it on Your lap as attestation of love and thanksgiving for my Mama.

But this is not enough; I want You to take it in Your hands as the sign that You accept my gift, and at the touch of Your Maternal fingers, convert it into many suns, for at least as many times as I have tried to do the Divine Will in my little acts.

Ah! Yes, Mother Queen, Your daughter wants to give You homages of Light and of Most Refulgent Suns. I know that You have many of these Suns, but they are not the Suns of Your daughter; so I want to give You mine, to tell You that I Love You, and to bind You to Loving me. Holy Mama, You smile at me and, all Goodness, You accept my gift; and I thank You from the heart. But I want to tell You many things; I want to enclose my pains, my fears, my weaknesses, my whole being in Your Maternal Heart, as the place of my refuge—I want to consecrate my will to You. O please! My Mama, accept it; make of it a Triumph of Grace, and a field on which the Divine Will may extend Its Kingdom. This will of mine, consecrated to You, will render us inseparable, and will keep us in continuous relations. The doors of Heaven will not be closed for me, because, as I have consecrated my will to You, You will give me Yours in exchange. So, either the Mama will come and stay with her daughter on earth, or the daughter will go to Live with her Mama in Heaven. O! How Happy I will be.

Listen, dearest Mama, in order to make the consecration of my will to You more solemn, I call the Sacrosanct Trinity, all the Angels, all the Saints, and before all I protest—and with an oath—to make the Solemn Consecration of my will to my Celestial Mama.

And now, Sovereign Queen, as the fulfillment, I ask for Your Holy Blessing, for myself and for all. May Your Blessing be the Celestial Dew which descends upon sinners to convert them, and upon the afflicted to console them. May it descend upon the whole world and Transform it in Good; may it descend upon the purging souls and extinguish the fire that burns them. May Your Maternal Blessing be Pledge of Salvation for all souls.  Amen

From Zenit.org

Faith is a “Free Gift of God”

Pope Benedict Reflects on Confidence in God’s ‘Yes’ to Mankind

By Ann Schneible

VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 2012 –  “God, on the other hand, never tires of us; He never tires of being patient with us, and with His immense mercy He always goes before us; He goes out to meet us first; His “yes” is entirely worthy of our trust.”

Pope Benedict spoke these words during his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square, where he offered a reflection on the letters of Saint Paul, and the role of prayer as a means of personally encountering God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Saint Paul, said the Holy Father,  “Paul suffered great tribulation and had to pass through many difficulties and afflictions, but he never yielded to discouragement, for he was sustained by grace and by the nearness of the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom he had become an apostle by surrendering his entire life to Him.”

It is for this reason, the Pope continues, that Paul begins the second letter to the Corinthians  “with a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving to God — for there was never a moment in his life as an apostle of Christ that he felt the support of the merciful Father, of the God of all consolation, lessen.”

“̎In the prayer of blessing that introduces the Second Letter to the Corinthians, what prevails in addition to the theme of affliction is the theme of consolation, which should not be understood as simple comfort, but rather as encouragement and exhortation not to let oneself be conquered by tribulation and difficulties.  The invitation is to live every situation in union with Christ, who takes all of the world’s suffering and sin upon Himself in order to bring light, hope and redemption.”

The Christian life, as well, is often wrought with difficulties, confusion, and suffering. Nonetheless,  “In being faithful to our relationship with the Lord through constant, daily prayer we too are able to feel concretely the consolation that comes from God. And this strengthens our faith, because it makes us experience concretely God’s “yes” to man, to us, to me, in Christ; it makes us feel the fidelity of His love, which extends even to the gift of His Son on the Cross.”

Moreover, Pope Benedict explains that faith is not solely a human action, but is a “gratuitous gift of God rooted in His fidelity, in His ‘yes’, which makes us understand how to live our lives by loving Him and our brothers and sisters. The whole of salvation history is a progressive self-revelation of the God’s faithfulness despite our infidelity and our rejection, in the certainty that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable!” as the Apostle declares in the Letter to the Romans (11:29).”

“God, on the other hand, never tires of us; He never tires of being patient with us, and with His immense mercy He always goes before us; He goes out to meet us first; His “yes” is entirely worthy of our trust.”

It is the Holy Spirit, Pope Benedict continued, who “who makes God’s ‘yes’ in Jesus Christ continually present and alive and it is He who creates in our hearts the desire to follow Him, in order to one day enter fully into His love, when in heaven we will receive a dwelling place not fashioned by human hands.”

The Lord’s faithful  ‘yes’ and the Church’s response of ‘amen,’ is echoed throughout the liturgy, expressing our own ‘yes’ to the initiative of God.

“In our prayer, the Holy Father went on to say,  “we are called to say ‘yes’ to God and to respond with the ‘amen’ of adherence, of faithfulness to Him with our whole life.”

Pope Benedect concluded his address, saying that “the ‘amen’ of our personal and communal prayer will envelop and transform the whole of our lives, into a life of consolation, a life immersed in eternal and unshakeable Love.”

Novena for Pentecost

May 18th to Sunday May 26th

To Pray the Novena to the Holy Ghost click Picture Above

To Pray the Novena to the Holy Spirit in the Divine Will Click Picture Below

 

 

THE MISSION NEEDS TO RENEW ITS TRUST IN THE ACTION OF GOD

Vatican City, 11 May 2012 (VIS) – “At the current time evangelisation, which is always a pressing task, requires the Church to work even more assiduously throughout the world in order to to ensure that all mankind may come to know Christ”, said Benedict XVI this morning as he received in audience directors of the Pontifical Missionary Works. That organisation, which oversees missionary cooperation among the Churches of the world, is currently celebrating the annual assembly of its governing council.

“Only in Truth, which is Christ Himself”, the Holy Father said, “can humankind discover the meaning of life, find salvation, and develop in justice and peace. All men and all peoples have the right to receive the Gospel of truth. … Jesus, the Word incarnate, is always the centre of our announcement, the point of reference for our evangelising mission and for its methodology, because He is the human face of God, Who wishes to meet all men and women so as to bring them into communion with Him, in His love”.

“The mission today needs to renew its trust in the action of God; it needs to pray more intensely that His Kingdom may come. … We must invoke light and strength from the Holy Spirit, and commit ourselves with decision and generosity so as to inaugurate, in a certain sense, ‘a new era of proclamation of the Gospel … because, after two millennia, a major part of the human family still does not acknowledge Christ, but also because the situation in which the Church and the world find themselves at the threshold of the new millennium is particularly challenging'”, said the Holy Father quoting Blessed John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Asia”. Pope Benedict also expressed his support for the project with which the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Pontifical Missionary Works are supporting the Year of Faith, a project involving “an international campaign which, by praying the Rosary, accompanies the work of evangelisation in the world and helps many of the baptised to rediscover and deepen their faith”.

“Announcing the Gospel often involves considerable difficulty and suffering. The growth of the Kingdom of God in the world, in fact, frequently comes about at the cost of His servants’ blood. In this period of economic, cultural and political change in which human beings often feel alone, prey to anguish and desperation, the messengers of the Gospel, even if they announce hope and peace, continue to be persecuted as their Master and Lord was. But, despite the problems and the tragic reality of persecution, the Church is not discouraged, she remains faithful to the mandate of her Lord, aware that ‘throughout Christian history, martyrs, that is, witnesses, have always been numerous and indispensable to the spread of the Gospel'”.

The Pope concluded his address by recalling that the Pontifical Missionary Works had been given the particular task of “supporting the ministers of the Gospel, and helping them preserve the ‘joy of evangelising, even when it is in tears that we must sow’. … Your work of missionary animation and formation lies at the very heart of pastoral care”, he told his audience, “because the ‘missio ad gentes’ is the paradigm for all apostolic activity of the Church. Become an increasingly visible and concrete expression of the sharing of personnel and means among Churches which, as communicating vessels, experience the same missionary vocation and impulse, and which work in every corner of the earth to sow the Word of Truth in all peoples and all cultures”.

The Hours of the Passion Dispose You To Receive the Divine Truths

Click Picture to read more.

By Meditating the Hours of Passion You Acquire

All Virtues And

You Receive the Grace Of Persevering In the Continuous Flight In the Divine Will

08 May 2012 04:20 PM PDT

Because By Making Reparation, We Share In Christ’s Redemptive Suffering!

What Is Reparation?

    In the summer of 1916, in the second apparition of the Angel to the children, he asked them to offer every
suffering as an act of reparation to God. On three occasions, in May, July, and October of 1917, our Lady instructed the children to make reparation for the sins against God and the sins against our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. However, nothing made as much impact on the children as the July vision of hell which caused all three, but especially Francisco, to take on many penances and offer them as acts of reparation.

    Reparation is the repairing or making up for the offenses against God. This covers a wide variety of areas from the fact of Original Sin to our own personal sins and even to the sins of others no matter how large or small the offense might be. God is the author of justice, but He is also the norm of justice. This means that He can determine what, if any, atonement needs to be made for sin. In other words, He can simply write off our sins without requiring any reparation, but normally He will not do this because reparation is actually something that is good for us.

God’s Justice Is Not Just A Concept

    We can see just how grievous our sins are to God by the fact that He did not just write them off, but sent His own Son to suffer and die, i.e., to make reparation for our sins. In this we see how important justice is to God. Justice is not just a concept, it is a truth that must be upheld and He did not back away from what justice requires even though, if we think in terms of human relationships, sending His Son to die would be much more difficult than just writing off the sins. Through His suffering and death, Jesus made atonement and reparation for our sins, but in His mercy He saved a little bit for us to do. This is not only so that we could make up, to some degree, for our own sins, but that we can actually have a share in the work of redemption and salvation. St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Colossians that he makes up in his body for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ for the sake of His body, the Church. It is not that Jesus did not do enough, but that the members of His Mystical Body would also share in this work.

How Can We Make Reparation For Our And The Worlds Sins?

    By uniting our prayers, works and sufferings to those of Jesus, we can actually make some reparation for our offenses against the justice of God. Because we are members of Christ, our offerings become part of the work of our Lord which was to make reparation for the sins of the whole world. Therefore, our offering not only makes reparation for our sins, but for the sins of others as well. I said earlier that God did not just wipe out our sins because the need to make reparation is better for us than to just have our sins forgiven. Making reparation helps us to understand the gravity of sin, but it also helps us to avoid sin so that we do not offend God any more. If our sins were just overlooked, we would think we could do anything and have no consequences. More than this, God allows us to love Him by making reparation. When we love someone we do not want to offend that person and, if we do commit an offense, we want to make it up to that person rather than just sweeping it under the rug. Love of God will drive us to want to make reparation.

    As a child of God and as a member of Christ, strive to satisfy the justice of God by making reparation for your sins and those of others.