Spiritual Reading for the Feast of the Holy Name ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
There are some who assert, and not without reason, that this Dolour was not only one of the greatest, but the greatest and most painful of all.
Category: 08.i.23 Holy Family
Morning Meditation for the Feast of the Holy Name ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
Our Lord, having given us the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of perfection, it was necessary that she should be laden with sorrows, that in her we may admire heroic patience and endeavour to imitate it. The loss of her Son in the Temple was one of the greatest sorrows that Mary had to endure in her life. Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water because the Comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from me (Lament. i. 16).
Evening Meditations for the Fourth Saturday after Epiphany ~ Alphonsus Liguori
It is of Faith that, immediately after death we shall be judged according to our works in this life. And it is also of Faith, that upon this Judgment will depend our eternal salvation or perdition. Imagine yourself in your agony, and having only a short time to live. Think that in a short time you would have to appear before Jesus Christ to give an account of your whole life. Alas! how alarming would the sight of your sins then be to you!
Spiritual Reading for the Fourth Saturday after Epiphany ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
Although this great Saint did not actually die for the Faith at the hands of the executioner, yet he may be styled a Martyr, as he died of the maltreatment which he received defending God’s honour and the rights of the Church.
Morning Meditation for the Fourth Saturday after Epiphany ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
There is no sinner, however abandoned by God, for whom Mary will not obtain grace and mercy if he only invokes her aid. As the magnet attracts iron so she draws to herself and to God the hardest hearts. Oh, if sinners had only recourse to Mary with a determination to amend their lives who should ever be lost!
Evening Meditations for the Fourth Friday after Epiphany ~ Alphonsus Liguori
The Incarnate Word, at the moment of His conception, saw before Him all the souls He was to redeem. Then thou also, my soul, wast presented with the guilt of all thy sins upon thee, and for thee did Jesus Christ accept all the pains that He suffered in life and death
Spiritual Reading for the Fourth Friday after Epiphany ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
The Acts of these Martyrs, as found in Ruinart, relate that in the year 259, under the Emperors Valerian and Gallien, Bishop Fructuosus of Tarragona, in Spain, with his two deacons, Augurius and Eulogius, were apprehended by order of Emilian, the governor of the province.
Morning Meditation for the Fourth Friday after Epiphany ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
Oh, how great will be the terror of the soul the first time it sees the Redeemer, and beholds His countenance full of wrath! Who shall stand before the face of his indignation? St. Bernard says that the sinful soul will suffer more at seeing the indignation of Jesus Christ than in hell itself.
Evening Meditations for the Fourth Thursday after Epiphany ~ Alphonsus Liguori
St. Bonaventure says that the Blessed Virgin would have accepted the pains and death of her Son far more willingly for herself; but to obey God she made the great offering of the Divine life of her Beloved Jesus, conquering, but with an excess of grief, the tender love which she bore Him. Hence it is that in this offering Mary had to do herself more violence and showed herself more generous than if she had offered herself to suffer all that her Son was to endure.
Spiritual Reading for the Fourth Thursday after Epiphany ~ St Alphonsus Liguori
In the Old Law there were two precepts concerning the birth of first-born son. One was, that the mother should remain as unclean, retired in her house for forty days; after which she was to go to purify herself in the Temple. The other was, that the parents of the firstborn son should take him to the Temple, and there offer him to God. On this day the most Blessed Virgin obeyed both these precepts.