Meditation and Prayers for Christmas

Enter into the sanctuary, the divine interior of the holy Infant Jesus, and learn to form yours according to it. All divine, noble, humble, simple, generous, recollected, and detached from the world. His every thought and intention are solely directed to His Father s glory. There you will find no idle thoughts and projects no vanities or selfseeking no suspicious thoughts contrary to charity.
Prayers

ADORABLE interior of the Infant Jesus! I revere You from my heart. How do You confound our pride and human wisdom! Ah, teach me, divine Jesus, after Your example, to despise the world, and not to seek the eyes of others in my devotion. You, O my God!  humbly conceal the treasures of grace and wisdom contained in Your divine mind, taking on Yourself the appearance of weakness, ignorance, and incapacity. Oh, heal my pride; remove my blindness and ignorance of interior things dissipate my darkness destroy my worldly notions and render my thoughts, views, desires, and sentiments like to Yours. Amen.

O BLESSED parents of the Infant Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, if we came to solicit you to obtain for us worldly prosperity, joys, honors, and comforts, our sighs could never reach the cradle of a God, poor, humble even to annihilation, forgotten, suffering, weak, and lying in a manger; but these are not our desires or petitions. No; we humbly and earnestly implore you to beg for us, at the crib of your Infant Son, that, like Him. and as His true and faithful followers, we may love to live in true humility dis engagement from creatures contempt of the world and its vanities constant recollection of the holy presence of God fervor and fidelity in all our duties and in the practice of the tenderest charity to all persons. May we never blush at the humility of the crib, nor at the poverty and simplicity of Bethlehem. May we ever rejoice at our happy lot as true spouses of Jesus Christ: ever in tender charity look with a compassionate eye on those who live but for this world, and continually pray that all may come to bless, to praise, and to love the Saviour Who comes to redeem them.

Infant Jesus, poor and simple, grant our petition!
Infant Jesus, humble and obedient, grant our petition!
Infant Jesus, silent and recollected, grant our petition!
Infant Jesus, inflamed with love for us, grant our petition!
Holy Mother of the Infant Jesus, pray for us!
Blessed St. Joseph, pray for us!
All ye saints, devoted to the Holy Infancy of Jesus, pray for us!

O BLESSED Heart of the Infant Jesus! I adore and love you as the center of all hearts, and humbly entreat you to give me grace henceforth to rest and repose in you, as in my true home. May you be my oratory, in which, and through which, I shall offer to the Eternal Father all my requests, that He may receive them more propitiously  May you be my school, wherein I may learn that celestial science so different from worldly wisdom those pure principles which lead to the interior life. In fine, may you, O Sacred Heart! be my treasury, and may I find abundant riches in your poverty, love, suffering, and fidelity. Amen.

- read more on saintsbooks.net

Patriarchy

God is a patriarch, the priesthood is a patriarchy, and His natural design for human society and the family, is patriarchy.

Therefore patriarchy is fundamentally good. As a Catholic, and also a simple human being defending natural law, it is necessary to promote, respect, embrace and love this patriarchal design.

Any lack of realization, respect, and promotion of this is therefore is a fundamental and serious problem that is quite destructive.

For example family obedience requires obedience to the husband and father, under pain of sin. If this is forgotten the family does not and cannot function properly. And it is an act of virtue, this obedience, and so a good, which sanctifies the wife and children, so not simply a negative. Their holiness is gained from the virtue of obedience.

It is natural society and government reflect the family.

When people ask, why not ordain women, and the answer is given 'We don't know, we just don't because Christ didn't.' This given alone is a poor answer that likely shows lack of knowledge or other grave failure. The answer is the good of patriarchy.

The profound failing in these times is a lack of love and ardent promotion of the good of patriarchy. When patriarchy is embraced the natural design of all the relations of society settle in their proper place. Dear reader, let not the sin of omission of its love and defense be accountable to thee.

Chaplet of St. Michael

A reminder of this beautiful prayer.

The Chaplet of St. Michael

The history of this Chaplet goes back to a devout Servant of God, Antonia d'Astonac, who had a vision of St. Michael. He told Antonia to honor him by nine salutations to the nine Choirs of Angels. St. Michael promised that whoever would practice this devotion in his honor would have, when approaching Holy Communion, an escort of nine angels chosen from each of the nine Choirs. In addition, for those who would recite the Chaplet daily, he promised his continual assistance and that of all the holy angels during life.

O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be. . .

I. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Seraphim may the Lord make us worthy to burn with the fire of perfect charity. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .
II. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Cherubim may the Lord grant us the grace to leave the ways of sin and run in the paths of Christian perfection. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

III. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Thrones may the Lord infuse into our hearts a true and sincere spirit of humility. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

IV. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Dominions may the Lord give us grace to govern our senses and overcome any unruly passions. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

V. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Powers may the Lord protect our souls against the snares and temptations of the devil. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

VI. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Virtues may the Lord preserve us from evil and falling into temptation. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .
VII. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Principalities may God fill our souls with a true spirit of obedience. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

VIII. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Archangels may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of Heaven. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

IX. By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Angels may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal life and conducted in the life to come to Heaven. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . .

In Honor of St. Michael, Our Father. . .
St. Gabriel, Our Father. . .
St. Raphael, Our Father. . .
Our Guardian Angel, Our Father. . .

Concluding Prayers

O glorious prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of the Divine King and our admirable conductor, you who shine with excellence and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil, who turn to you with confidence and enable us by your gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Pray for us, O glorious St. Michael, Prince of the Church of Jesus Christ, that we may be made worthy of His promises.

Almighty and Everlasting God, Who, by a prodigy of goodness and a merciful desire for the salvation of all men, has appointed the most glorious Archangel St. Michael Prince of Your Church, make us worthy, we ask You, to be delivered from all our enemies, that none of them may harass us at the hour of death, but that we may be conducted by him into Your Presence. This we ask through the merits of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

THE SEVEN DOLORS.

THE SEVEN DOLORS.
BY ENFANT DE MARIE.

I.

SHE knelt within the holy place.
 And clasped her treasured Child,
But visions of the distant cross
 Overcast that Mother mild.

II.

And soon, an exile from her home,
 Across the desert sand
She fled to save His precious life
 In Egypt's heathen-land.

III.

The years passed by — but darker still
 The shadows of the cross ;
For three long days she sought her Love,
 And mourned for His loss.

IV.

The Passion-hour came at last;
 She saw Him as He went
Along the " via crucis," there
 Again her soul was rent.

V.

Behold! the tender Mother stands
 Beneath her dying Son,
And there, in love and bitter pain,
 Her martyr-palm is won.

VI.

The last sweet sigh is breathed now;
 She will not from Him part,
But feels within her anguished soul
 The sword that pierced His Heart.

VII.

How soon they take the dear, dead Form
 Blest Fruit of Mary's womb—
And lay it gently down to rest
 Within the garden-tomb!

Flowers For Our Lady's Altar on Candlemas Day

Flowers For Our Lady's Altar on Candlemas Day
by Sister P.

THERE are ways, our Lady knows them.
And her children all should know
How to find a flower for Mary
Underneath the deepest snow.

How to weave a lovely garland.
Winter though it be, and cold.
How to buy the rarest offering
Costing something, but not gold.

How to buy, and buy them dearly.
Gifts that she will love to take.
Nor to grudge the cost but give it
Cheerfully for Mary's sake.

Does this seem so strange an offering.
Nay, indeed, 'tis something new:
All can give her noble presents.
Shall I tell you of a few?

What were those the Magi offered.
Gold and myrrh and frankincense ?
They, you say, were saints and monarchs.
That makes quite a difference.

Well, 'tis sometimes hard to listen
To a word unkind or cold,
And to smile a loving answer:
Do it, and you give her gold.

Thoughts of her in work or study
Are small grains of incense rare:
Cast upon a burning censer.
Rise in perfumed clouds of prayer.

Here are sometimes bitter fancies.
Little murmurs that will stir
Even a loving heart -- but crush them.
And you give our Lady myrrh.

Give your little crosses to her,
Which each day, each hour, befall;
They remind her of her Jesus,
So ghe loves them best of all.

Some seem very poor and worthless,
Yet, however small and slight,
Given to her by one who loves her
They are precious in her sight.

One may be so hard to carry
That your hands will bleed and smart
Go and take it to her altar,
Go and place it in her heart.

Check your tears, and try to love it,
Love it as His sacred will;
Thus you set your crown with jewels,
Make your gift more precious still.

There are souls, alas too many,
Who forgot that Jesus died.
Who forgot that sin forever
Is the lance to pierce His side.

Ah!  poor sinners, Mary loves them,
And she knows no royal gem
Half so noble, or so precious,
As the prayers you say for them.

Then resign some little pleasure,
Give it her instead to win
Help for some poor heart in peril,
Grace for some poor soul in sin.

Flowers! I should never finish
If I tried to count them too,
If I told you how to know them,
In what garden plot they grew.

Yet I think that each one guesses
They are emblems, and we trace
In the loveliest and the rarest,
Acts of love and gifts of grace.

And such flowers will never wither,
They are not of mortal birth,
And such garlands given to Mary
Die not like the gifts of earth.

Surely now you cannot tell me
That you have no gift to lay
At the feet of our dear mother,
Any hour, any day.

Give her now, to-day, forever,
One great gift, the first and best;
Give your heart to her and ask her
How to give her all the rest.