Day 4 of the Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows
Fig Monday is upon us...
We continue our 9 day Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows which commenced on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows and will conclude on Holy Saturday. We are praying for the following intentions:
The repose of the soul of the recently deceased, Fr. Paul Mangiafico
reparation for all blasphemies against Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament
reparation for all blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Feast of the Seven Sorrows in September is devoted to all of her Seven Sorrows; the feast today focuses more specifically the last four of those -- i.e., on what she suffered during Passiontide. In other words, the feeling of the day is akin to what one feels when looking at Michelangelo's Pieta: we imagine Our Lady watching her Son enduring His betrayal, His arrest, His torture, His crucifixion, His death, and His burial.1
Most Blessed and afflicted Virgin, Queen of Martyrs, who didst stand generously beneath the cross, beholding the agony of thy dying Son; by the sword of sorrow which then pierced thy soul, by the sufferings of thy sorrowful life, by the unutterable joy which now more than repays thee for them; look down with a mother’s pity and tenderness, as I kneel before thee to compassionate thy sorrows, and to lay my petition with childlike confidence in thy wounded heart. I beg of thee, O my Mother, to plead continually for me with thy Son, since He can refuse thee nothing, and through the merits of His most sacred Passion and Death, together with thy own sufferings at the foot of the cross, so to touch His Sacred Heart, that I may obtain my request,
Here pause and name the favours which you are asking Our Sorrowful Mother to obtain for you through this Novena. (Let your secondary intention be to pray for the intentions of all the people making this Novena})
For to whom shall I fly in my wants and miseries, if not to thee, O Mother of mercy, who, having so deeply drunk the chalice of thy Son, canst most pity us poor exiles, still doomed to sigh in this vale of tears? Offer to Jesus but one drop of His Precious Blood, but one pang of His adorable Heart; remind Him that thou art our life, our sweetness, and our hope, and thou wilt obtain what I ask, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hail Mary, Virgin Most Sorrowful, pray for us (seven times)
Mark 11:12-14
And the next day when they came out from Bethania, he was hungry. And when he had seen afar off a fig tree having leaves, he came if perhaps he might find any thing on it. And when he was come to it, he found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And answering he said to it: May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever. (also Matthew 21:18-19)
This cursing is a reference to what would happen to those of Israel who rejected the Messias, as revealed in this parable:
Luke 13:6-9
He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it done therefore: why cumbereth it the ground? But he answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.2
Monday in Holy Week
Morning Meditation
DETACHMENT FROM ALL THAT IS NOT GOD
If we do not purify and strip the heart of everything earthly, the love of God cannot enter in and possess it all. Detach thy heart from all created things, says St. Teresa, and seek God, and thou shalt find Him.
I.
In order to attain to loving God with all our heart, we must separate it from everything that is not God, that does not tend towards God. He chooses to be alone in the possession of our hearts; He admits no companions there; and with reason, because He is our only Lord, Who has given us everything. Still further, He is our only Lover, Who has loved us not for His own interest, but solely from His goodness; and because He thus exceedingly loves us, He desires that we should love Him with all our hearts: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
To love God with our whole heart implies two things: the first is, to drive from it every affection that is not for God, or not according to the will of God. "If I knew," said St. Francis de Sales, "that I had one fibre in my heart that did not belong to God, I would instantly tear it out." The second is prayer, by which holy love introduces itself into the heart. But if the heart does not fly from the earth, love cannot enter, for it finds no place for itself. On the other hand, a heart detached from all creatures instantly becomes inflamed, and increases in Divine love at every breathing of grace.
"Pure love," said the holy Bishop of Geneva, "consumes everything that is not God, in order to change it into itself; because everything that is done for God is the love of God." Oh, how full of goodness and liberality is God to those souls that seek nothing but Him and His will! The Lord is good to them that seek him. (Lam. iii. 25). Happy he who, living still in the world, can say from his heart with St. Francis: "My God and my All!" and thus hold in contempt all the vanities of the world. "I have despised the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory of this life, for the love of Jesus Christ my Lord."
When, then, creatures would enter our heart and take a share of this love, all of which we owe to God, we must immediately banish them, shutting the door against them, and saying: "Begone! Begone to those who desire you; my heart I have given wholly to Jesus Christ; for you there is no place." And, in addition to this resolution to desire nothing but God, we must hate that which the world loves, and love that which the world hates.
O Jesus, I do not desire that creatures should have any part in my heart. Thou must be my only Lord by possessing it altogether. Let others seek the delights and grandeurs of the world. Thou alone in this life and in the next must be my only portion, my only Good, my only Love. O Mary, thy prayers can make me belong wholly to Jesus.
II.
Above all, to attain to perfect love, we must deny ourselves, embracing that which is distasteful to self-love, and rejecting that which self-love demands. A certain thing is pleasant to us; for that very reason we must reject it. A certain medicine is disagreeable, because it is bitter. We must take it for the very reason that it is bitter. It is unpleasant to us to do good to a certain person who has been ungrateful to us; we must, by all means, do him good, for the very reason that he has been ungrateful.
Further, St. Francis de Sales said that we must love even virtues with a detachment of heart; for example, we ought to love meditation and retirement; but when they are forbidden to us, through the calls of obedience or of charity, we must leave both the one and the other without being disquieted. And thus it is necessary to embrace with equanimity everything that happens to us through the will of God. Happy is he who wishes to have, or refuses to have, whatever happens because God wishes it or refuses it, without inclining to either side. And therefore we must pray the Lord to enable us to find peace in everything that He appoints for us.
It is certain that no one lives more happy in the world, than he who despises the things of the world, and lives in continual conformity to the will of God. Therefore, it is a useful thing frequently during the day, or at least at the times of prayer and Communion, to renew at the foot of the Crucifix the total renunciation of ourselves and of all our possessions, saying: O my Jesus, I desire to think no more of myself; I give myself wholly to Thee, do with me what Thou wilt. I see that everything that the world offers me is vanity and deceit. From this day, I would seek nothing but Thee, and Thy good will; help me to be faithful to Thee. O Virgin Mary, pray to Jesus for me.3
https://fisheaters.com/customslent10.html
https://fisheaters.com/customslent11.html
https://www.religiousbookshelf.com/meditations-and-readings/day/2151-Monday-in-Holy-Week.html