The Gospel gives us Jesus’ explicit teachings on prayer.

esus insists on conversion of heart: reconciliationwith one's brother before presenting an offering onthe altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors,prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up emptyphrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths ofthe heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdombefore all else. (CCC 2608)

Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receivinghis gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness: “Whatever you ask in prayer,believe that you receive it, and you will.” (CCC 2610)The prayer of faith consists not only in saying “Lord, Lord,” but

in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. (CCC 2611)What is new is to “ask in his name.” (CCC 2614)Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:• The first, “the importunate friend,” invites us to urgent prayer:

“Knock, and it will be opened to you.” To the one who prays like this,the heavenly Father will “give whatever he needs,” and above all theHoly Spirit who contains all gifts.• The second, “the importunate widow,” is centered on one of the

qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing andwith the patience of faith. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, willhe find faith on earth?”• The third parable, “the Pharisee and the tax collector,” concerns

the humility of the heart that prays. “God, be merciful to me asinner!” The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrieeleison! (CCC 2613)

THE LORD’S PRAYEROur Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdomcome. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day ourdaily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespassagainst us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen

Christ in Gethsemane - Heinrich Hofmann (1890)

The bodies of some Saints are miraculously preserved after death, preparing them for the glory of the Resurrection

aintly incorruptibility is a mysterious phenomenawhereby the human body does not undergo thenormal process of decomposition after death, asa special sign of God’s favour and an affirmationof the dogma of the Resurrection of the Body.The condition is not dependent upon the mannerof burial, state of temperature, place of burial, or

any other external influence including embalming or otherpreservation methods for saints who are deemed incorruptiblewere not embalmed or preserved in any manner.Bodies of incorruptibles remain lifelike and flexible, sometimes

effusing a sweet scent many years after death. There are degreesof incorruptibility. Some saints, like St. Charbel Makhlouf, evenemit an oil-like fluid while the flow of fresh blood that proceededmany years after death was observed in saints like St. Josephatand St. Nicholas of Tolentino.Incorruptibility has no bearing on sainthood and neither does

dissolution of a body hinder a saint’s cause. The first occurrencehappened by accident when the body was exhumed and transferredto a more prominent place for veneration and some parts of thebody were removed as relics.There are several hundred documented cases of incorruptible

saints including St. Cecilia (the first incorrupt saint), St. Clare ofAssisi, St. Rose of Lima, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis Xavier,St. John of the Cross, St. John Vianney, St. John Bosco, St. MariaGoretti, and St. Bernadette Soubirous (pictured).When the body of St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), the

seer of Lourdes, was first exhumed in 1909, she appeared to besleeping. During the second disinterment in 1919, there was slightdiscolouration in places due to the washing of her body during thefirst exhumation. In 1925, a light wax was applied to her face andhands to cover the damage caused earlier by washing. Her bodylies in a coffin of glass, viewable by the public in Nevers, France.

“Thou wilt not let thy Holy One see corruption.” — Acts 13:35“Blessed are the pure of heart: for they shall see God.” — Mt 5:8

Photograph of St. Bernadette - D.R. Philippe Cabidoche

The movement of a “contrite heart” (Ps 51:19) drawn by divine grace to respond to the merciful love of God. (CCCC 300)

esus' call to conversion and penance, like that of theprophets before him, does not aim first at outwardworks, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification,but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.Without this, such penances remain sterile and false;however, interior conversion urges expression in visible

signs, gestures and works of penance. (CCC 1430)Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a

return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turningaway from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we havecommitted. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution tochange one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of hisgrace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain andsadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit)and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart). (CCC 1431)

The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a newheart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makesour hearts return to him: “Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we maybe restored!” God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discoveringthe greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror andweight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separatedfrom him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whomour sins have pierced. (CCC 1432)

0e Confession - Giuseppe Molteni (1800–1867)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. ThenI will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee. Deliver mefrom bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will singaloud of thy deliverance. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall showforth thy praise. For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burntoffering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a brokenspirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”— Ps 51:10-17

t is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise upthose who have believed in him, who have eatenhis body and drunk his blood. (CCC 994)God, in his almighty power, will definitively

grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reunitingthem with our souls, through the power of Jesus'Resurrection. (CCC 997)

Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet,that it is I myself;” but he did not return to an earthly life. So, inhim, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which theynow bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like hisglorious body,” into a “spiritual body.” (CCC 999)Just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and now lives forever,

so he himself will raise everyone on the last day with an incorruptiblebody: “Those who have done good will rise to the resurrectionof life and those who have done evil to the resurrection ofcondemnation” (John 5:29). (CCCC 204)After death, which is the separation of the body and the soul,

the body becomes corrupt while the soul, which is immortal, goesto meet the judgment of God and awaits its reunion with the bodywhen it will rise transformed at the time of the return of the Lord.How the resurrection of the body will come about exceeds thepossibilities of our imagination and understanding. (CCCC 205)When? Definitively “at the last day,” “at the end of the world.”

Indeed, the resurrection of the dead is closely associated withChrist's Parousia [Second Coming]. (CCC 1001)

Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. (CCC 991)

EASTER PRAYERLord, the resurrection of Your Son has given us new life and renewedhope. Help us to live as new people in pursuit of the Christian ideal.Grant us wisdom to know what we must do, the will to want to doit, the courage to undertake it, the perseverance to continue to doit, and the strength to complete it. Amen.

onfirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is thesacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order toroot us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporateus more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond withthe Church, associate us more closely with hermission, and help us bear witness to the Christianfaith in words accompanied by deeds. (CCC 1316)

Confirmation, like Baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indeliblecharacter on the Christian's soul; for this reason one can receive thissacrament only once in one's life. (CCC 1317)

The effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouringof the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day ofPentecost. (CCC 1302)

From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening ofbaptismal grace:

• it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry,“Abba! Father!”;

• it unites us more firmly to Christ; • it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; • it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;• it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend

the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess thename of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross. (CCC 1302)

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRITAll-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and theHoly Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave themnew life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide.Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of rightjudgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill themwith the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this throughChrist our Lord. Amen.

By the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] ... are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1285) One of the most beloved and venerated saints in the Catholic Church.

orn in Lisbon, Portugal in 1195 to a wealthy family,Anthony entered the Augustinian order out of ascholastic theological pursuit but the simple, evangelicaland missionary lifestyle exemplified by St. Francis ofAssisi attracted him to the Franciscan order. His rise to prominence came in 1222 during an

ordination of Franciscans and Dominicans when he was asked to givea short sermon. His expert knowledge of scripture combined with hismoving eloquence created a deep impression establishing his reputationas a powerful preacher and securing his rise to prominence.St. Anthony travelled extensively throughout northern Italy and

southern France which saw him preach in areas that had beenplagued by heresy, earned him the title, “Hammer of the Heretics.”His most powerful weapon against the enemies of the Church was thegenuineness in which he lived the Gospel: a commitment to a life ofreal poverty nurtured by a quiet life of prayer and penance.The tradition of invoking St. Anthony's help in finding lost objects

dates back to an incident involving a valuable book of psalms containinghis notes that went missing. After Anthony prayed they would be foundor returned, the thieving novice was moved to return the book toAnthony and return to the Order which he previously abandoned.St. Anthony became one of the ‘quickest’ saints to be canonized by

the Church, less than a year after his death in 1231. A majestic basilicanamed in his honour in his adopted town of Padua contains hisremains along with a relic of his tongue which was found to be incorruptupon exhumation of his body 32 years after his death.

PRAYER TO ST. ANTHONY OF PADUAAlmighty ever-living God, who gave Saint Anthony of Padua to yourpeople as an outstanding preacher and an intercessor in their need,grant that, with his assistance, as we follow the teachings of theChristian life, we may know your help in every trial. Through our LordJesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity ofthe Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

St. Anthony of Padua - Melchior Paul of Deschwanden (1881)

One of the founding fathers of the United States and the Christian faith in the New World.

unipero Serra was born on the island of Majorca,Spain in 1713. He joined the Franciscan order butdecided to become a missionary after obtaining adoctorate degree in Sacred Theology, and aban-doning a successful career and comfortable life asuniversity professor and distinguished dramaticpreacher at the Franciscan University in Palma.

His missionary journey began in Mexico and later California,where he personally founded nine missions that became the citiesof today's California, covering an area from San Diego to northof San Francisco. Over the course of his lifetime, this zealousmissionary travelled tens of thousands of miles to evangelize. Hebaptized 6,000 Native Americans, composed a native catechism,and used visual methods to teach religion.

Rich in works and endowed with a pioneering spirit, FatherSerra introduced modern agricultural and irrigation techniquesand farm animals to improve the lives of the natives. He fearlesslyconfronted Spanish governors, commanders and bureaucratsto protect the California indigenous people against injusticesinflicted by the Spanish soldiers and staunchly defended nativerights over those of non-native settlers.

Known for his apostolic zeal and humility, enduring the peniten-tial hardships of the frontier with prayer and mortification, he oftenperformed self-flagellation to purify his spirit. Fr. Serra is the patronsaint of California, Hispanic Americans and religious vocations.

COLLECT PRAYER TO ST. JUNIPERO SERRAO God, who by your ineffable mercy have been pleased through thelabours of your priest Saint Junipero Serra to count many Americanpeoples within your Church, grant by his intercession that we may sojoin our hearts to you in love, as to carry always and everywhere beforeall people the image of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reignswith you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

She founded a religious order in charge of educating and catechizing youth in the Gaspé region of Quebec.

lisabeth Turgeon was born in Beaumont (near QuebecCity) in 1840. From a very young age she dreamed ofbecoming a religious and an educator. Despite her frailhealth, at times on the verge of death, her brilliant successas a teacher led the Bishop of Rimouski to ask her toeducate the youth of this newly-formed diocese. Therewas an urgent need to open schools with qualified

teachers given the dire poverty and poor working conditions of the region.She founded the Sisters of Our Lady of the Rosary in 1878, becoming

the first Superior of the Congregation tasked with “training teachersand founding schools.” In 1879 Élisabeth entered the Sisters of the LittleSchools along with 12 of her companions making her profession of vows. Mother Marie-Élisabeth had a deep trust in a merciful, kind, faithful

and loving Heavenly Father. Her spirituality was centred on accomplishingthe will of God in all things, even in the midst of trials, sufferingsand privations which she and her community faced. Her great trustand devotion to Mary is still reflected in the community’s motto, “Allfor Jesus, through Mary.”Prayerful throughout her life, Élisabeth was particularly faithful to

“prayer and meditation” during the six years she spent in communityfrom 1875-1881; moreover, when she needed help with a particularproblem or had to come to some decision, she often spent “nights inprayer” in front of the Blessed Sacrament. A loving person who exhibited kindness, tenderness, and justice

towards her students and sisters in community, Élisabeth was quick toforgive, never showing any bitterness or animosity, revealing a joyful,sweet and serene countenance that animated her life.

PRAYER TO BLESSED ÉLISABETH TURGEONLord of tenderness and compassion, you have filled Blessed ÉlisabethTurgeon with zeal for you glory and the salvation of the world. You havecalled her to found a Religious Congregation dedicated to the ChristianEducation of youth. In sickness, poverty, and hardship of all kinds, shewent to you with profound faith and childlike trust. God our Father,grant, through her intercession, the favor we seek.

ow there stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother.”(Jn 19:25) This ancient and popular devotion to OurLady of Sorrows, enshrined in history by John’sGospel narrative, commemorates the sufferingsendured by the Mother of God while she lived hereon earth, perfectly conformed to the Divine Will.

The Sorrowful Virgin is often depicted in paintings in tears andsadness, either standing beneath the Cross, or holding the lifelessbody of Jesus on her lap, with seven knives or daggers piercing herheart, as foretold in the prophecy of Simeon at the Presentation:“... a sword will piece your own soul too.” (Lk 2:35)The Church has enriched with numerous indulgences those

who venerate Our Lady’s sorrows. One such devotion is theRosary of the Seven Sorrows, a chaplet comprised of seven groupsof seven beads, representing seven of the Virgin Mary's sorrows:the Prophecy of Simeon, the Flight into Egypt, the Loss of Jesusin the Temple, the Meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Via Dolorosa,the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus, the Piercing of the Side ofJesus and His Descent from the Cross, and the Burial of Jesus.By virtue of her spiritual martyrdom, the Blessed Virgin Mary

is invoked as the Queen of Martyrs, Comforter of the Afflicted,Consoler of the Suffering, Mother of Mercy, Mother of the Dying,and Refuge of Sinners. Her own experience of inexpressiblesorrow enables her to comfort her children in all their afflictions.

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF SORROWSO Mary, Mother of Sorrows, I beseech thee, by the inexpressibletortures thou didst endure at the death of thy Son, offer to theEternal Father, in my stead, thy beloved Son all covered with Bloodand Wounds, for the grace of ... Amen.

Frequently depicted in art, the title derives from the sorrows endured by the Blessed Mother during her life.

“

What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and writing...to all generations. (CCC 96)

postolic Tradition is the transmission of the messageof Christ, brought about from the very beginningsof Christianity by means of preaching, bearingwitness, institutions, worship, and inspired writings.The apostles transmitted all they received fromChrist and learned from the Holy Spirit to theirsuccessors, the bishops, and through them to all

generations until the end of the world. (CCCC 12)Through Tradition, “the Church, in her doctrine, life and

worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all thatshe herself is, all that she believes.” “The sayings of the holy Fathersare a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showinghow its riches are poured out in the practice and life of theChurch, in her belief and her prayer.” (CCC 78)

Apostolic Tradition occurs in two ways: through the livingtransmission of the word of God (also simply called Tradition)and through Sacred Scripture which is the same proclamation ofsalvation in written form. (CCCC 13)

Tradition and Sacred Scripture are bound closely together andcommunicate one with the other. Each of them makes presentand fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ. They flow outof the same divine well-spring and together make up one sacreddeposit of faith from which the Church derives her certaintyabout revelation. (CCCC 14)

The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and handson what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and whatthey learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christiansdid not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testamentitself demonstrates the process of living Tradition. (CCC 83)

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Gotherefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in thename of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teachingthem to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am withyou always, to the close of the age.” - Mt 28:18-20

This ancient practice consists of thirty Masses said for 30 consecutive days for the deliverance of a soul from Purgatory.

he name is derived from Pope St. Gregory theGreat (540-604) who popularized this pious practice.In his Dialogues, the saint relates how a deceasedmonk appeared to him requesting that 30 Massesbe said for the release of his soul from purgatory.On the 30th day the monk appeared to his bloodbrother, who had no idea Masses were being said

for him, relating that he had been released from purgatory. The Sacred Congregation on Indulgences has said that this

practice “has a special efficacy for obtaining from God the speedydeliverance of a suffering soul, and that this a pious and reason-able belief of the faithful.”

Gregorian Masses are usually celebrated in monasteries, semi-naries, religious orders and in missionary lands where celebrantshave fewer pastoral commitments than parish priests.

There are a number of requirements to obtain this benefit forthe departed loved one: the Masses must be said consecutively,without interruption, for 30 days; they must be offered exclusivelyfor a single deceased individual; they can be said by more thanone priest, on more than one altar, as long as they are said forthirty consecutive days for the same intention.

Although the practice is approved by the Church, there is noofficial guarantee that a soul will be released from purgatory afterthe thirty Masses are offered. Still, this hallowed tradition under-scores the power of the Holy Mass and the importance of havingprayers said for the faithful departed.

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SOULSEternal Father, I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy DivineSon, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the worldtoday, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere,for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, andin my family. Amen.

0e Mass of Pope Gregory - Spanish Painter (c. 1490–1500)

:e explanation for the name and title of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.

iven by the angel at the time of the Annunciation, thename “Jesus” means “God saves.” (CCCC 81) The child bornof the Virgin Mary is called Jesus, “for he will save hispeople from their sins” (Mt 1:21): “there is no other nameunder heaven given among men by which we must besaved” (Acts 4:12). (CCC 452)

“Christ” in Greek, “Messiah” in Hebrew, means the “anointed one.”Jesus is the Christ because he is consecrated by God and anointed by theHoly Spirit for his redeeming mission. He is the Messiah awaited by Israel,sent into the world by the Father. Jesus accepted the title of Messiah buthe made the meaning of the term clear: “come down from heaven” (John3:13), crucified and then risen, he is the Suffering Servant “who gives hislife as a ransom for the many” (Matthew 20:28). From the name Christcomes our name of Christian. (CCCC 82)

The title “Son of God” signifies the unique and eternal relationship ofJesus Christ to God his Father: he is the only Son of the Father (cf. Jn 1:14,18; 3:16, 18); he is God himself (cf. Jn 1:1). To be a Christian, one mustbelieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (cf. Acts 8:37; 1 Jn 2:23).(CCC 454)

The title “Lord” indicates divine sovereignty. To confess or invoke Jesusas Lord is to believe in his divinity. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ exceptby the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). (CCC 455)

“And the angel said to them, ‘Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you goodnews of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is bornthis day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And thiswill be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothsand lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitudeof the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!’”

— Lk 2:10-140e Adoration of the Christ Child - Follower of Jan Joest of Kalkar (1515)

january february march april

may june july august

september october november december

2018 CALENDAR THEMES

Email: orders@faithcalendar.ca Please email requests for calendars to: perpetualadoration@outlook.com