CATHOLIC

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

 

"Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven."   --Saint Pope Pius X

 SAINT ANGELA MERICI

1470-1540

FEAST DAY:  JANUARY 27TH

Angela Mericia was born on March 21, 1470 at Disenzano, Lombardy, Italy.  At the age of ten she became an orphan, which caused led her to go with her sister to the city of Salo.  At Salo she was taken in by her uncle's family.  Her sister died very soon after leaving her alone without any immediate family.  Angela entered a Franciscan Third order and returned to her original home at Disenzano and converted her home into a school for teaching girls the Catholic catechism. She then opened a second school in Brescia, Italy. Eventually, she founded an order to be known as the Ursulines in 1535, the name being derived from their devotion to St. Ursula.  In 1525, she went to Rome and saw Pope Clement VII.  The Holy Father wanted her to stay in Rome, but she felt led to return to her school in Brescia.  Angela served as the superior of the Ursulines for five years and died on January 27, 1540.  In 1544, the Ursulines received papal approval.

 INTERCESSORY PRAYER:  Today, ask Saint Angela to pray for your needs.

 

MORE ON SAINT ANGELA MERICI FROM BUTLER'S LIVES OF THE SAINTS

 

PRAY FOR THE END OF ABORTION

END THE ABORTION HOLOCAUST

OVER 50 MILLION CHILDREN HAVE BEEN MURDERED SINCE 1973 BY ABORTION

PRAY THAT THE NEXT U.S. PRESIDENT WOULD BE PROLIFE AND WOULD TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO OUTLAW ABORTION

PRAY THE ROSARY TODAY FOR ABORTION TO BE MADE ILLEGAL
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

REPUBILICAN CANDIDATES STAND ON ABORTION IN 2012

MORE ON ABORTION

 

 

SAVE BABIES EVERYDAY AT YOUR LOCAL ABORTION CLINIC  THROUGH SIDEWALK COUNSELING

 

 

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION FOR TODAY

[The works of a well known Catholic Spiritual Director will be featured in this space each week.]

THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

by: Ugolino of Montegiorgio

PART ONE

CHAPTER XXVIII (Part I)

 OF AN ECSTASY WHICH CAME TO BROTHER BERNARD, AND HOW HE REMAINED FROM MATINS UNTIL NONE IN A STATE OF RAPTURE.

Brother Bernard of Quintavalle was an example of the manifestation of the grace of God in the poor followers of the Gospel, who gave up the world to follow Christ. For since he had taken the habit of St Francis, he was often rapt in God through the contemplation of celestial things. It happened one day, as he was in a church hearing Mass, his mind was so raised to God that he was transfixed and enraptured, so as not to be aware of the moment of the elevation of the Body of Christ; for he neither knelt down nor removed his hood, as did the others, but remained motionless, with his eyes intently gazing upwards, and remained so even from Matins till the hour of None. On coming back to himself, he went about the convent crying out with a loud voice: "O brothers! O brothers! O brothers! there is not a man in all this land, however great and however noble he may be, who, if a palace full of gold were offered him, would not willingly carry on his back a sack of copper to acquire so rich a treasure." Now this celestial treasure, promised to the lovers of Christ, had been revealed to Brother Bernard; and his mind was so fixed upon it, that for fifteen years his heart and countenance was raised away to heaven. In all that time he never satisfied his hunger, though he ate a little of whatever was set before him; wherefore he used to say that if a man does not taste what he eats his abstinence has no merit, for true abstinence is to moderate oneself in those things which are agreeable to the palate. His intelligence also became so enlightened that many great divines had recourse to him to solve difficult questions and explain obscure passages of Scripture, which he did with great facility. So completely was his mind detached and withdrawn from all things earthly, that he soared like the swallows above the earth, and remained sometimes twenty, sometimes thirty days at the top of a high mountain contemplating things divine. For which reason Brother Giles said that he had received a gift from God which had been given to no other human being - namely, that in his divine flight he was fed like the swallows. And, because of this wonderful grace of contemplation which he had received from God, St Francis willingly and frequently held converse with him day and night; and often they were found to be in a state of ecstasy all night long, in the wood where they used to meet together to talk on things divine.

  ____________

THE ENTIRE WORK:  THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

 

PRAYER  TO
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

O Beloved Saint Francis,
gentle and poor,
your obedience to God,
and your simple,
deep love for all God's creatures
led you to the heights of heavenly perfection
and turned many hearts to follow God's will.
Now in our day,
in our ministry to the many
who come here searching for peace
and intercede for us
we come before the Lord with our special requests...

(Mention your special intentions here...)

O Blessed Saint of God,
from your throne among the hosts of heaven,
present our petitions before our faithful Lord.
May your prayers on our behalf be heard
and may God grant us the grace
to lead good and faithrful lives.

Amen

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

 

PRAYERS FOR THE DAY

MORNING PRAYER
AFTERNOON PRAYER
EVENING PRAYER

 

 

PRAYER TO BLESSED  JOHN PAUL II FOR HIS INTERCESSION:

Blessed Pope John Paul II, you spent your life deeply immersed in the truths of the Catholic Faith.  You led us by your great example of love and self-sacrifice and you successively led millions to love Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. 

We now ask for your intercession for those who are troubled and in need:

 

Pope John Paul II, please pray for the Holy Catholic Church and for the following prayer request: [state your prayer request.]

 

SEE:  EWTN  Biography on Pope John Paul II

 

MARIAN PRAYERS

 Saint Louis De Montfort stresses that people should give there hearts and wills to Jesus through Mary and that by doing this a soul will be able to soar toward God.  See Saint Louis's book True Devotion To Mary. Saint Louis warns of the devil's great ability to deceive souls, including souls of saints:

"Because the devils, who are skillful thieves, wish to surprise us unawares, and to strip us.  They watch day and night for the favorable moment.  For that end they go round about us incessantly to devour us and to snatch from us in one momsin, all the graces and merits we have gained for many years.   Their malice, their experience, their stratagems and their number ought to make us fear this misfortune immensely, especially when we see how many persons fuller of grace than we are, richer in virtues, better founded in experience and far higher exalted in sanctity, have been surprised, robbed and unhappily pillaged.  Ah!  How many cedars of Lebanon, how many stars of the firmament, have we not seen fall miserably, and in the twinkling of an eye lose all their height and their brightness!  Whence comes that sad and curious change?  It was not for want of grace, which is wanting to no man; but it was for want of humility.  They thought themselves capable of guarding their own treasures.  They trusted in themselves, relied upon themselves.  They thought their house secure enough, and their coffers strong enough, to keep the precious treasure of grace.  It is because of that scarcely perceptible reliance upon themselves, though all the while it seemed to them that they were relying only on the grace of God, that the most just Lord permitted them to be robbed by leaving them to themselves.  Alas!  If they had but known the admirable devotion which I will unfold presently, they would have confided their treasure to a Virgin powerful and faithful, who would have kept it for them as if it had been her own possession; nay, who would have even taken it as an obligation of justice on herself to preserve it for them. "    (Part One, Chapter 2, #88.)  

See Saint Louis's book: True Devotion To Mary.

 

PRAYER TO
THE VIRGIN MARY

Holy Mary, my Queen and sovereign Lady, I give you myself, trusting in your fidelity and your protection. I surrender myself entirely to your motherly tenderness, my body, my soul, all that I am, all that I possess,  for the whole of this day, for every moment of my life,  and especially at the hour of my death. I entrust to you once more all my hopes, all my consolations, all my anxieties, all my troubles, my life, my dying breath, so that by your prayers and merits, I may have, in all I do, one only goal, your good pleasure and the holy will of your Son.  Amen!

PURPOSE OF THIS WEB SITE

Welcome to this Catholic Spiritual Direction Web Site.   It is the intention of this site to lead people to a closer relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit through the promotion of prayer and Christian teaching which will enable Christians to adhere to the straight and narrow path Jesus speaks of in the Gospels.  Included in these web pages are the Douay-Rheims Bible and the works of Saint John of the Cross, Thomas à Kempis and Saint Louis de Montfort, and the works of other saints of the Catholic faith,   all of whose teachings on spiritual direction have been followed by priests, ministers, clergymen, Popes and Saints. These teachings adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church.   This site is dedicated to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (Biography) (1774-1824) Mystic, Stigmatist,  Prophet, and Great Visionary, a saintly Augustinian nun from Flamske, Germany.  Her highly descriptive visions of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, The Sorrowful Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, are presented here.   In time more works from the Saints of the Catholic Church will be added to these pages.

 
EVENING PRAYER:

Jesus gave us the very essence of spiritual direction in the Bible:  "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment." Matthew 22:37-38

Each evening we should reflect on the good things and on the bad things we did during the day and ask God to help us to improve in the future.  It is good if we say an Act of Contrition each evening to help us acknowledge our imperfections and to ask God to give us the graces to improve.

ACT OF CONTRITION

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. 

_______________

Prayer of Saint Catherine of Siena for Physical and Spiritual Healing

PRECIOUS BLOOD, ocean of divine mercy:
Flow upon us!
Precious Blood, most pure offering:
Procure us every grace!
Precious Blood, hope and refuge of sinners:
Atone for us!
Precious Blood, delight of holy souls:
Draw us! Amen.

 

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