Feast of Saint Faustina Kovalska , blessed Apostle of Divine Mercy ~~ October 5 ~~

"Have confidence, My child. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you. As often as you beg for it, you glorify My mercy."
(Jesus to souls - Diary of St. Faustina, 1488)

Today we remember Saint Faustina as a great woman of true Faith and of God , but  we remember also the message she brings from our Lord Jesus, that we can never fathom the depths of God's infinite Mercy and Love.
Saint Faustina was chosen by God to help promote the importance of Divine Mercy. Through her , we are given the most precious treasure that catapults us into the Divine Mercy of God.
Our Lord gave many great mystical graces to Sister Faustina of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland. He also gave her a mission - to tell the world that He is Mercy itself, and that before He returns as a just Judge, He is coming as a merciful Savior. Jesus called Faustina His “Secretary of Divine Mercy”, and commanded her to write everything He told her. In obedience, Faustina kept a diary, now called "Divine Mercy in My Soul" . Over 7 times our Lord Jesus Christ told her that this message would prepare the world for His final coming. Sister Faustina led a seemingly ordinary life. However, her life was anything but ordinary. From the time she was a little girl to her death in 1938, her life was a constant dialog with Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother, the saints, and the angels. The evil tried on numerous occasions to dissuade her from her mission, even appearing to her in the form of wild dogs threatening to tear her to pieces. Even so , our beloved Saint Faustina won over evil's different attacks and manifestations through her great Faith and devotion , for the great Glory of God .

Therefore let us faithfully pray :

Saint Faustina, you told us that your mission would continue after your death and that you would not forget us. Our Lord also granted you a great privilege, telling you to "distribute graces as you will, to who you will, and when you will." Relying on this, we ask your intercession for the graces we need, especially for the intentions just mentioned. Help us, above all, to trust in Jesus as you did and thus to glorify His mercy every moment of our lives. Amen

May beloved and blessed St. Faustina continue to pray for all those who seek her intercession and may God bless us with His unfathomable Divine Mercy!

Blessed Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

Today is the feast day of our beloved St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1216), founder of the Franciscan order, mystic and bearer of the stigmata .
There is often the temptation to look at Saint Francis as a purely 'secular hero' , an animal lover and ecology patron . But the truth is that beloved Saint Francis was the great person he was because of his deep and intimate love for Lord Jesus and his overwhelming awareness of the presence of Providence in his life.
Today as we celebrate the life of Francis we need to ask the Lord through his intercession to make us 'channels of His peace' in this world and to give us the wisdom to realize our future as humans is closely tied to the future of the rest of nature as a whole.
St. Francis used to say that nothing is more important than the salvation of souls, and he often offered as proof the fact that the Only-begotten of God deigned to hang on the cross for souls.
Prayer was the most comfort for Francis in this life of contemplation in which he became a fellow-citizen of the Angels, as he penetrated the dwelling places of Heaven in his eager search for his Beloved Jesus , from whom he was separated only by a partition of flesh.
St. Francis felt like an exile, as long as he remained in this earthly life separated from God, and at the same time, his love of Christ had left him insensible to all earthly desires. Therefore, he tried to keep his spirit in the presence of God, by praying to him without intermission, so that he might not be without some comfort from his Beloved. Whether he was walking or sitting, at home or abroad, whether he was working or resting, he was so wholeheartedly intent on prayer that he seemed to have dedicated to it not only his heart and soul, but all his efforts and all his time.
Therefore let us follow Saint Francis and together with him faithfully pray :

Great and glorious God, my Lord Jesus Christ!
I implore Thee to enlighten me
and to disperse the darkness of my soul.
Give me true faith, firm hope, and perfect charity.
Grant me, O Lord, to know Thee so well
that in all things I may act by Thy light
and in accordance with Thy holy will.
Amen

Padre Pio’s Prayer to the Guardian Angel

Angel of God,

my guardian,

to whom the goodness

of the Heavenly Father entrusts me.

Enlighten,

protect and guide me

now and for ever.

Amen

"Behold I will send my Angel who will go before you, to guard you on your journey and bring you to the place that I have prepared. Revere him and obey what he says. Do not defy him, he will not pardon such a fault for My Name is in him." (Exodus 23: 20-21)

'Send Me Your Guardian Angel', is a marvelous book about Saint Padre Pio's relationship with his Guardian Angel. Saint Pio would send his angel on errands and have him do all sorts of things that the good padre could not do easily himself.

Padre Pio had a great devotion to the Angels and had a special devotion to his Guardian Angel. He was on intimate terms with St Michael and the Angels. Towards the end of his life, Padre Pio spoke with affection of his Guardian Angel as 'the companion of my infancy.' While he was still a boy, his Guardian Angel appeared to him in the semblance of another child. His Guardian Angel helped him in his noviciate year and during his studies in preparation for the priesthood. Padre Pio's Guardian Angel helped him to become holy and was near him in the assaults of the devil and often helped him. For example, with his Guardian Angel's help, Padre Pio was able to understand the contents of letters written in French and Greek, although he did not know either of these languages.

Both inside and outside the confessional, Padre Pio would encourage people to have devotion to the Angels. In farewelling pilgrims, Padre Pio would use such phrases as: 'May the Angels of God accompany you.' 'May the Angel of God be for you light, help, strength, comfort, and guidance.' To some of his penitents in great need, Padre Pio would tell them to send their Guardian Angels to him. He would encourage his penitents and pilgrims to visit the shrine of St Michael the Archangel on Mt Gargano before going home. During the fifth century, St Michael appeared in visible form in a cave in the mountainside on Mt Gargano and revealed to the local Bishop that the mountain was under his special protection for the honour of God and the Holy Angels.

Blessed Feast of Guardian Angels ~~ October 2 ~~

Heavenly Father, Your infinite love for us has chosen a blessed angel in heaven and appointed him our guide during this earthly pilgrimage.

Accept our thanks for so great a blessing.

Grant that we may experience the assistance of our holy protector in all our necessities.

And you, holy, loving angel and guide, watch over us with all the tenderness of your angelic heart.

Keep us always on the way that leads to heaven, and cease not to pray for us until we have attained our final destiny, eternal salvation.

Then we shall love you for all eternity.

We shall praise and glorify you unceasingly for all the good you have done for us while here on earth.

Especially be a faithful and watchful protector of our children.

Take our place, and supply what may be wanting to us through human frailty, short-sightedness, or sinful neglect.

Lighten, O you perfect servants of God, our heavy task.

Guide our children, that they may become like unto Jesus, may imitate Him faithfully, and persevere till they attain eternal life. Amen

Truly our God Almighty Father is awesome , that He made and assigned each one of us an angel to protect and guide us. Angels are servants and messengers from God. “Angel” in Greek means messenger.
In unseen ways the angels help us on our earthly pilgrimage by assisting us in work and study, helping us in temptation and protecting us from physical danger.
Angels are a dogma of the Catholic Faith. Every Sunday Mass when we recite the Nicene Creed (dating from the year 325), we restate our belief of the creation and existence of angels, implicit in the phrase "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen (or other translations of all things visible and invisible)..."
The Credo of the People of God (Pope Paul VI, 20 June 1968) further explains the phrase: "We believe in one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Creator of what is visible--such as this world where we live out our lives--and of the invisible--such as the pure spirits which are also called angels." 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read that " existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition" (328). 


The role of angels most pertinent to our spiritual lives is our guardian angel. Every person is given a guardian angel because as Eusebius puts it: "Fearing lest sinful mankind should be without government and without guidance, like herds of cattle, God gave them protectors and superintendents, the holy angels in the form of captains and shepherds" (Dem. Ev., 4, 6).
We are never without our protector, and the more we request their help, the more he can help us.
A guardian angel's roles are threefold: 1) angel of peace, 2) angel of penitence (or penance) and 3) angel of prayer.

As an angel of peace, they protect against danger, both bodily and spiritual threats. They also can give peace and comfort to the soul when undergoing tribulations, like Jesus during his agony in the Garden.

As an angel of penance or penitence, our angel has the office of chastising and correcting us when we stray from God's path. The angel also helps us in restoring our soul to health after we sin, helping us obtaining remission of our sins.

As an angel of prayer, the guardian angel presents our prayers to God, both liturgical and private prayers. "The angel, indeed, of each one, even of the little ones in the Church, always seeing the face of the Father who is in heaven and beholding the divinity of our Creator, prays with us and cooperates with us, as far as is possible, in what we seek"

Blessed and happy Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux , the Little Flower ( October 1 )

It's time of the year to remember and celebrate Saint Therese , Little Flower of Child Jesus . She is a true Saint of modern time , always there for us to pray and help us in every difficult moments of our lifes . Her intercessory powers are extraordinary because of her ordinary and simple confidence, trust and hope in her loving Brother-our Eternal God!
God infused into Therese the gifts of the Spirit. She received God's wisdom, knowledge and understanding in abundance. Therese believed that since God is total Spirit and all powerful, the Almighty would grant her this request because of her extraordinary confidence.
Through her intercession we can gain increased confidence and trust in a pessimistic world around us. We only need to do little things well and the big ones will fall into place. We need to practice ordinary things such as daily prayer. That's the biggest challenge because we do not always feel like praying. God is in the ordinary and plain events and circumstances of daily life. We can find the Almighty anywhere. God's likeness and image inundate us. The Deity's signature, glance and invitation are written on every flower, every smile we offer and every kind word we extend .
Saint Therese is only the second doctor of the church in the Modern Era category. The other one is Alphonsus Liguori who died in 1787.
"In response to the many requests and after much attentive study, I have the joy of announcing that on Mission Sunday, October, 19th, 1997, in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, I will proclaim St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, a doctor of the Church. I have wished to solemnly announce this event here (the Vicar was in France) because the message of St Therese, a young holy woman so present to our times, is of particular interest to you, young people. At the school of the Gospel, she indicates to you the path of Christian maturity. She calls you to an infinite generosity; she invites you to remain in the heart of the Church as disciples and ardent witnesses of Christ's charity.""Therese's teaching" the Holy Father said, "is a true science." It is the luminous expression of her knowledge of the mystery of Christ and of her personal experience of grace. She helps the men and women of today and she will help those of tomorrow to be more aware of the gifts of God and to spread the Good News of God's love. She would encourage us to trust in the church's 2000 years of motherly wisdom and riches.

More about the life of Threse of Lisieux read on my favourite site dedicated to her here

Join me also in praying faithfully Novena to the Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux