Novena To St. Dominic of the Rosary {Day 4}

Today is the fourth day.

Fourth Day: St. Dominic’s Prayer

Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and inspired songs. Sing praise to the Lord with all your hearts. Give thanks to God the Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

Prayer was the breath of St. Dominic’s life, the light on his path, the staff on his pilgrimage. He prayed always. In childhood his delight was to serve Mass, to visit the Blessed Sacrament, and to chant Office. As a student, he learned wisdom more from prayer than from books. He won more souls by prayer than by preaching or miracles. In traveling, St. Dominic prayed as he went, sometimes the Veni Creator Spiritus, or the Ave Maris Stella, or sometimes he recited psalms. He often reminded his companions to think of God. Many times St. Dominic spent the night in prayer before the altar. His methods of prayer were various: sometimes he lay prostrate, then stood erect, then knelt down. For hours he would stand before a crucifix, genuflecting and making fervent ejaculations. Often he stretched out his arms like a cross, pleading earnestly to God. On occasion he was seen in rapture by the vehemence of his prayer. “In all labors and trials, in hunger, thirst, fatigue, his heart turned always to God.”

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O God, who enlightened your Church by the virtues and preaching of St. Dominic, your confessor and our father, mercifully grant that by his prayers we may be delivered from present dangers and ever increase in spiritual blessings. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena To St. Dominic of the Rosary {Day 3}

Today is the third day of this novena.

Third Day: Compunction of Heart

Those who fear the Lord seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law. Those who fear the Lord prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of men, for equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows. (Sirach 2: 16-18)

ROSA PATIENTIAE             ROSE OF PATIENCE

Though so pure that Holy Church calls him “Ivory of Chastity,” and Christian art puts a lily into his hands, Dominic was always weeping over sin. His soul being full of contrition, acts of sorrow were constantly upon his lips. On seeing towns or villages, he used to weep over the sins committed there against God. But this sorrow was not merely hidden in the soul; it bore fruit in works of penance. Three times every night he scourged himself: once for his own sins, once for those of others, and once for the suffering souls. He was a rule of abstinence, even on journeys never eating meat or food cooked with meat. His fasts were strict and continual; even when traveling over Europe on foot, he fasted from September until Easter, though preaching daily. He never had a room of his own, but slept anywhere: on the ground, a bench, or the altar step. Being a zealous lover of the rule, he punished faults, but with such fatherly love that penance was accepted and even desired from his hands.

“If you have no sins of your own to weep for,” St. Dominic would say, “still weep, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, and grieve for the sinners of the world that they may repent.”

Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27)

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O zealous preacher of penance, Holy Father St. Dominic, whose ardent desire for the salvation of souls made you ever ready to endure the greatest labors and fatigues and even to give your life in order to win them to God, pray for us, that treading in the steps of Jesus Crucified, the Redeemer and Physician of souls, we may disregard all suffering and generously sacrifice ourselves for the needs of others. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena To St. Dominic of the Rosary {Day 2}

Today is the second day of the novena to St. Dominic of the Rosary.

Second Day: Humility

Your attitude must be that of Christ: Though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

DOCTOR VERITATIS                      DOCTOR OF TRUTH

Humility is the foundation of perfection, and in St. Dominic it was deep and strong. So clear was his knowledge of the great majesty of God and his own nothingness that he lived always in holy fear and self-distrust. Though most innocent, he considered himself to be a sinner, unworthy of the least grace. Constantly he prostrated himself before God, praying for long periods of time.

Before entering a town to preach, he used to kneel down on the road, begging God not to punish the people for his sins but to make his labor fruitful. When passing an altar or crucifix he would bow profoundly, in token of his nothingness. Praise and honor he detested, and three times refused the bishopric. At the General Chapter he said to his brethren, “I deserve to be deposed from my office, for I am negligent and relaxed.” When asked where he would be buried, “Under the feet of my brethren,” the saint responded.

The saints, though great in virtue, look upon themselves as worthless, because they see themselves in the light of God, and knowing him they know themselves. “Our righteousness,” St. Dominic would say, “when compared to the righteousness of God, is mere uncleanness.”

Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29)

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O Holy Father St. Dominic, true lover of humility, the greater you appeared in the sight of men, the more you humbled yourself before God. Be to us a loving guide, that, following in your footsteps we may be enabled to withstand all the snares of the enemy, and spending our lives in earnest prayer, self-denial and humility, we may, at the hour of death, be received with you into heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Novena To St. Dominic of the Rosary {Day 1}

St. Dominic of the Rosary and St. Philomena are my favorite saints. And, as I am being prepared for confirmation, these are the two that I am going to pick as my confirmation saints. But I want to be sure that they are the ones I am supposed to pick.

So, I am going to say a novena to each one. I'm going to post it every day here because I hope you'll join me in praying to these marvelous saints.

I am going to start out with the novena to St. Dominic. Today is the first day. (you can find the site where I found this novena here) Quite conicidentallly, the site of this novena is the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. :D

First Day: The Force of Good Example

He shone in his days as the morning star, in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full; and as the sun, when it shines, so did he shine in the temple of God. (Sirach 50:6,7)

LUMEN ECCLESIAE                      LIGHT OF THE CHURCH

St. Dominic was born in Spain in 1170. With the dawn of reason his whole soul turned to God. His childhood was most pious and his youth angelic in purity. In the University of Palencia he was the model student. At twenty five he became a canon regular at Osma, and with the religious habit he put on the Lord Jesus and strove in all things to imitate Him. His time was divided into prayer, study of Scripture, and com­munity duties. Silence and retirement were his delight; works of penance and tears of contrition his meat and drink. Going in 1205 to France, he spent many years in every kind of labor for the conversion of the Albigensian heretics. Like Jesus Christ he passed the day in apostolic work, the night in prayer. His penance was extreme, but to others he was gentle, sweet, and kind. Many were converted by his miracles, many by the example of his holy life. Six times he jour­neyed to Rome, once to Spain, once to Paris, walking barefoot, praying or singing on the road; preaching in the towns and villages, spending the nights in contemplation. He founded in 1215 the Order of Friars Preachers for the conversion of souls. He was a man of truly apostolic heart, a column of the Faith, a trumpet of the Gospel, the light of Christ to men. He died at Bologna in 1221.

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O most enlightened teacher of divine truth, Holy Father St. Dominic, who taught what was profitable for salvation and made yourself all things to all men, that you might win all to Christ; help us to close our ears and hearts to all false doctrine and whatever may be harmful to our souls and to open them joyfully to the truths of Holy Church. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord of the Rings Memes

Okay, my second Goose Girl post isn't finished yet

*glares at biology book*

But I don't want to not have a post this week. Sorry if that didn't make any sense. But I've got a good streak going here. (or you could let me do a post)

WHAAA

NOOOOOO

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WOULD START???

Anywhoosies, here are just some LotR memes that I have. Enjoy!

true

true

TRUE

is it sad that this is very true?

YEEEEEES. TRUE. I HATE SPIDERS

Okay, I hope you liked those! And, again, hoooooooooooooopefully I'll get the second Goose Girl quotes post out sometime in the near (not) STOP, future.

And, because I'm lazy and in a rush today, I'll use the same farewell GIF as I used last week (I think)