I am currently in the middle of moving and have been unable to update the sites for the past few weeks.

However, there's a lot of work that's been done that's ready to be uploaded.

I hope to have finished the move at worst in one and a half weeks.

So, around then we should have some major uploads of new quotes, prayers, and some expansions including meditations.

Patience!

'We should not wish to see or do anything which could not be done in the presence of God and His creatures, and we shall thus imagine that we are always in His presence.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Pray in peace and serenity, sing intelligently and in a good state - and you will be like a young eagle soaring high in the sky.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

'The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge.'

St. John Chrysostom

I am beginning to feel the Christmas spirit.. I am going to start listening to the music and that will be the trick.

My two favorite seasons are Christmas and Lent. . Of course it is not Christmas yet. . But it is nearer and nearer.

I doubt I will have time to be able to gather as many quotations as I would like especially for this season, but I will try.

I have some modernly updated quotations of St. Robert Southwell already long used, but today.. a treat.

Older English.. Some of it Christmas poetry. . .

St. Peter's Complaint

Launch forth, my soule, into a maine of teares,
Full fraught with griefe, the trafficke of thy mind;
Torn sailes will serue, thoughts rent with guilty feares:
Giue Care the sterne, vse sighs in lieu of wind:
Remorse, thy pilot; thy misdeede thy card ;
Torment thy hauen, shipwrack thy best reward.

Shun not the shelfe of most deserued shame;
Sticke in the sands of agonizing dread;
Content thee to be stormes' and billowes' game;
Diuorct from drace, thy soule to pennace wed;
Fly not from forraine euils, fly from thy hart;
Worse then the worst of euils is that thou art.

Give vent vnto the vapours of thy brest,
That thicken in the brimmes of cloudie eyes;
Where sinne was hatcht, let teares now wash the nest;
Where life was lost, recouer life with cryes.
Thy trespasse foule, let not thy teares be few,
Baptize thy spotted soule in weeping dew.

... And later. . .

The Burning Babe

As I in hoary Winter's night stood shiveringe in the snowe,
Surpris'd I was with sodayne heat, which made my hart to glowe;
And liftinge upp a fearefull eye to vewe what fire was nere,
A prety Babe all burninge bright, did in the ayre appeare;
Who scorched with excessive heate, such floodes of teares did shedd,
As though His floodes should quench His flames which with His teares were fedd;

Alas! quoth He, but newly borne, in fiery heates I frye,
Yet none approch to warme their hartes or feele my fire but I!
My faultles brest the fornace is, the fuell woundinge thornes,
Love is the fire, and sighes the smoke, the ashes shame and scornes;
The fuell Justice layeth on, and Mercy blowes the coales,
The mettall in this fornace wrought are men's defiled soules,
for which, as nowe on fire I am, to worke them to their good,

So will I melt into a bath to washe them in My bloode:
With this He vanisht out of sight, and swiftly shroncke awaye,
And straight I called unto mynde that it was Christmas daye.

Nine Offices of the Sacred Heart

I am endeavoring to find the book or pamphlet detailing the Nine Offices of the Sacred Heart. . .


“The peace of all things lies in the tranquility of order; and order is the disposition of equal and unequal things in such a way as to give to each its proper place.”

St. Augustine

"In every danger, 'as the dove when frightened flies for refuge to the hollows of the rock, so will the Christian soul seek protection in the cleft of the mystical rock, the Wounded Side of the Redeemer."

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

"I am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulations;"

2 Corinthians 7: 4

O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart, so that I may live only in You and only for You, so that, in the end, I may live with You eternally in heaven.

St. Claude de la Colombiere

Blessed Elzear, Comte d'Arian, in Provence, having, says St. Francis de Sales, been long absent from his devout and chaste Delphina, she sent a messenger to him to inquire expressly for his health. Behold the reply she received: "I am very well, my dear wife; but if you wish to see me, seek me in the wound of the side of our sweet Jesus: for it is there that I dwell, and there you will find me. Elsewhere you will seek me in vain." This was a Christian chevalier indeed.

- E.B.

Papal Quotes

I have read some interesting papal quotes recently. . .

Here we have a condemnation of co-education, and so-called 'sexual education' which I agree with him about how distasteful a terminology it is.

"Surely, equally false and harmful to Christian education is that method of instructing youth, which is commonly called "coeducation." Both the sexes have been established by God's wisdom for this purpose, that in the family and in society they may complement each other, and may aptly join in any one thing; for this reason there is a distinction of body and of soul by which they differ from each other, which accordingly must be maintained in education and in instruction, or, rather ought to be fostered by proper distinction and separation, in keeping with age and circumstances. Such precepts in accord with the precepts of Christian prudence are to be observed at the proper time and opportunely not only in all schools, especially through the disturbed years of youth, upon which the manner of living for almost all future life entirely depends, but also in gymnastic games and exercises, in which special care must be taken for the Christian modesty of girls, inasmuch as it is especially unbecoming for them to expose themselves, and to exhibit themselves before the eyes of all."

". . . much more pernicious are those opinions and teachings regarding the following of nature absolutely as a guide. These enter upon a certain phase of human education which is full of difficulties, namely, that which has to do with moral integrity and chastity. For here and there a great many foolishly and dangerously hold and advance the method of education, which is disgustingly called "sexual," since they foolishly feel that they can, by merely natural means, after discarding every religious and pious aid, warn youth against sensuality and excess, by initiating and instructing all of them, without distinction of sex, even publicly, in hazardous doctrines; and what is worse, by exposing them prematurely to the occasions, in order that their minds having become accustomed, as they say, may grow hardened to the dangers of puberty."

You can read more of the above in his Encyclical, "Divini illius magistri"

Pope St. Pius X's quotation in the database, puts it all much more succinctly:

'Obviously the need of this Christian instruction is accentuated by the decline of our times and morals. It is even more demanded by the existence of those public schools, lacking all religion, where everything holy is ridiculed and scorned. There both teachers' lips and students' ears are inclined to godlessness. We are referring to those schools which are unjustly called neutral or lay. In reality, they are nothing more than the stronghold of the powers of darkness.'

Pope Leo XIII, and Bl. Pope Pius IX, amongst others sound the same notes.

Rarities

I received my first donation to Saints' Books the other day and it is still on my mind.

It was a great happiness to receive. Small, but more than might be expected and a great start and seed. Thanks be to God and His those He inspires.

Someday perhaps I'll be able to cover the costs of these sites through donations. And begin the further projects.

There are some very rare treasures out there, some that may never be recoverable if they aren't purchased soon -- I am speaking of antiquarian prayer books, catechisms, etc. and recent books of very limited printing of the works of the saints in English. You sometimes see a few at high prices for auctions.. and then a particular work may not appear again.

I know the spiritual treasure in many of them is infinite..

There's the Evergetinos which is about $120.00, a rare treasure with a limited printing run, full of hither to untranslated writings of the saints.

There's Fr. Furniss, Redemptorist from 1800's works, which are so rare you cannot find them anywhere at all, except a single compilation of much of his work for $350.00 at an antiquarian book seller's. If that disappears, I may never be able to acquire his writings and redistribute them.

So I pray that there are people inspired by the thought of the Heavenly treasure they receive from donating and helping share the works of the saints.

Saints' Works

I have established a new core website to run the entire Saints' series of websites from, the php, the file storage, etc.

I am not certain if the site itself will see much public use however, merely being more of a backbone site to run and hold the essentials of all the other sites.

The website is (and there is nothing there yet) www.saintsworks.net

Up till now I have been running the php and such from my old programming website, which I had intended to use to launch some entertainment oriented games for sale. There is a great lack of entertainment in these times with a Catholic moral compass, and I hoped to provide something there.

However, the artwork and other aspects proved quite difficult to finish, I had people come into the projects and bow out, leaving them without the essentials. I can program, I can write stories for entertainment, but the visual artistic content side is something I lack enough talent for. And relying on outside help means sometimes the help doesn't work out. I've finally decided to take down that site, and move on to other things. I still do work on some of these projects, but they're being put off the stove, no longer even on the backburner.

I may put up a random showcase generator on Saints' Works to showcase the other sites, or simply put up a static site with information about the others.

My previous provider, Fortune City was acquired by another host and made the transfer poorly. So the new provider will be WebhostingPad.com and we shall see how well this works. The company, they say is hiring new people and doing well, and it shows up in the mainstream review sites top ten lists. It has been in business since 2005.

The price, as they say, cannot be beat. Right now 'unlimited hosting' is a popular term (not quite but that is the advertisement). This will be helpful for storing far more volumes on Saints' Books than we were able to in the construction period, where we had limited storage available.

This is all good news. :)

Prayers, New and Old

Seven Ave Maria's and Seven Sancta Mater's
favored by Pope Pius VII

Sancta Mater

Holy Mother, pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of thy Saviour crucified.

Sancta Mater istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo valide.

Ave Maria

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae.

Hail Mary, Full of Sorrows
favored by Bl. Pope Pius IX

Hail Mary, full of sorrows, the Crucified is with thee: tearful art thou amongst women, and tearful is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of the Crucified, grant tears to us crucifiers of thy Son, now and at the hour of our death.

Ave Maria doloribus plena, Crucifixus tecum: lacrymabilis te in mulieribus, et lacrymabilis fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Crucifixi: lacrymas impertire nobis crucifixoribus Filii tui, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Bl. Pope Pius IX desired this prayer to be said with contrite heart in honour of the most holy Virgin in her desolation.

O Mary, Mother of Mercy
by Pope Bl. Pius IX

O Mary, mother of mercy and refuge of sinners! we beseech thee to look with pitying eyes on heretical and schismatical nations. Do thou, who art the seat of wisdom, illumine their minds, wretchedly involved in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may know the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church to be the only true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which no sanctity or salvation can be found. Finally, complete their conversion by obtaining for them the grace to believe every truth of our Holy Faith, and to submit to the Sovereign Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth, that thus, being soon united to us by the bonds of divine charity, they may make with us but one fold under one and the same pastor, and that we may thus, O glorious Virgin! all sing exultingly forever: 'Rejoice, O Virgin Mary! alone thou hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world.'

In peace I shall both lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me secure. Psalm 4:9

When you lie down, you need not be afraid, when you rest, your sleep will be sweet. Proverb 3:24

Arising from Sleep

Arising from sleep I give thee thanks, O Holy Trinity, for in thy great goodness and long suffering thou wert not angered with me, the slothful and sinful one, nor didst thou condemn me with my transgressions; but thou didst show thy love of man, as is thy wont, and didst lift me out of my desperation, to rise and glorify thy power. Enlighten now the eyes of my thought, open my mouth, that I may engage in thy word, and do thy will, and sing to thee in the confession of my heart, and praise thy most holy name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now, and always, and forever and ever.

Prayer to St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

Most Holy Trinity, I thank Thee for having formed the hosts of Thy ministers in Heaven so marvelously, and for having adorned their leader so magnificently. Be Thou adored and loved in the beauty and grandeur of Thy ministers: be Thou praised in their jubilant songs of praise and thanksgiving, through all eternity. Amen

O holy princes of Heaven, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, I praise you for the love with which the Most High has loved you and placed you so near to His own throne. Be mindful of our necessities, and at the head of the Holy Angels, do battle for the Church of God upon earth, that Satan may be forced to yield ever more, and the Kingdom of light and grace, virtue and the holy love of God, may flourish in splendor, and its beauty be acknowledged by all.


Prayer 'O my Jesus, look not on my ingratitude to Thee. . .'
by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori from 'The True Spouse of Jesus Christ'

O my Jesus, look not on my ingratitude to Thee, after all Thy mercies, but turn Thy eyes to Thy own merits, and to the pains that Thou hast suffered for me, from the crib of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary. I repent, with my whole soul, of all the offences that I have offered to Thee. From this moment I consecrate to Thee my life, which I desire to spend in doing all that I can to obey and to love Thee. I love Thee, O my Redeemer, but I love Thee too little; for Thy mercy's sake, increase in my soul Thy love. Hear my prayer O Jesus, and make me, by Thy grace, continue to repeat this prayer. O love of my soul, O that my heart may burn continually with Thy love. I have offended Thee grievously; but for the future I desire to love Thee intensely. I desire to love Thee alone, because Thou alone deservest to be loved above all things; and I desire to love Thee for no other reason than because Thou art worthy of all love.

O Mary, my mother and my hope, assist me.