Three Hail Mary's

The devotion of the three Hail Mary's – said morning and evening to honour the Immaculata, for the grace to avoid mortal sin – is an excellent and Catholic custom, especially propagated by St Leonard of Port Maurice.

According to the wise counsel of St Alphonso, after each Ave, say, "By thy pure and immaculate conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy." (Per tuam puram et immaculatam conceptionem, O Maria, redde purum corpus meum et sanctam animal meam.)

I like to also add, in honour of Mary Immaculate, the prayer of the Miraculous Medal: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

Ave Maria purissima!

Confession

After work, it was good to stop off at the Redemptorist Monastery, say the penitential prayer of St Simeon Metaphrastes, and make my humble confession; and afterward to pray the Little Hours and Vespers in their church.  It struck me that the collect of to-day, the feast of St Callistus I, Pope and Martyr, was highly appropriate, as I repeated it at Terce, Sext, None and Vespers:

Deus, qui nos conspicis ex nostra infirmitate deficere: ad amorem tuum nos misericorditer per sanctorum tuorum exempla restaura.  Per...

God, Who seest us (by reason of our infirmity) to fall and fail, to Thy love mercifully (by the example of Thy saints) restore us.  Through...

Yes, it is through the One Mediator, the Saint of Saints, Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Lord, that God our Lord restores us to supernatural life when we fall from His grace and fail; but, since the Divine Will delights in working through secondary causes, it is by the example of the righteous made perfect, those saved by Christ who have gone before us, that we are moved to repentance and to hope and to cooperation with grace.  May St Callistus be praised and blessed, for this holy Pope and courageous martyr gives us cause, by his triumphant witness to his Divine Master and ours, to trust that we too shall run the great race, finish the course, keep the faith, and win the prize of victory laid up for us in heaven (cf. II Tim. iv, 7) through Christ our Lord.

Blessed be St Alphonsus, too, for giving us his Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer - and now too the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.  I might even visit Christchurch sometime...

St Alphonsus; First Saturday; Portiuncula Indulgence

This morning Michael (our new housemate) and I drove in to Mass at the Pro.; he served the Mass, but then had to dash off to an appointment with his spiritual director or somesuch, so I took over and served Benediction, which Fr Rowe does on First Saturdays.

The proper Mass of St Alphonsus, that wonderful saint and great moral theologian, apostle of the love of God against the inhuman coldness of Jansenism, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church and Founder of the Redemptorists, is very fine, particularly the secret and postcommunion, which interpret to us the ardor with which he cleaved to and extolled the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and how we therefore should join ourselves to it:

Cælésti, Dómine Jesu Christe, sacrifícii igne corda nostra in odórem suavitatis exúre: qui beato Alphónso Maria tribuísti et hæc mystéria celebráre, et per éadem hóstiam tibi sanctam seipsum exhibére: Qui vivis...

O Lord Jesus Christ, burn our hearts up with the fire of heavenly sacrifice for an odor of sweetness, Who didst grant to blessed Alphonsus Mary both to celebrate these mysteries and, through them, to offer himself to Thee a holy victim. Who livest...

Deus, qui beátum Alphonsum Maríam Confessorem tuum atque Pontíficem, fidélem divíni mystérii dispensatórem et præcónem effecísti: ejus méritis, precibúsque concéde; ut fidéles tui et frequénter percípiant et percipiéndo sine fine colláudent. Per...

God, Who didst make blessed Alphonsus Mary, Thy Confessor and Bishop, a faithful dispenser and preacher of the divine mystery, grant, by his merits and prayers, that Thy faithful may both frequently receive it, and, receiving it, praise without ceasing. Through...

As is fitting, we sang "O Bread of heaven" as a bridge between Mass of St Alphonsus, who wrote that hymn, and the act of worship of the Eucharist to come.

To gain today's plenary indulgence, called that of the Portiuncula, after the usual Exposition hymn O salutaris hostia, and the First Saturday Consecration to the Immaculate Heart and Litany of Loreto before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, we said - in the vernacular - the Confiteor &c. as an Act of Contrition, the Nicene Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and again the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Glory be &c. to pray for the Pope's intentions. Benediction proper with came next the Tantum ergo, preceded by the usual prayer for the conversion of Australia, and then, after Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament while we sang Adoremus in æternum... Laudate Dominum omnes gentes..., all concluded with "O Lady of Fatima hail".

Since I haven't found the Prayer for the Conversion of Australia online, here it is, as we still say it before the Tantum ergo &c. every time we have Benediction:

PRAYER FOR THE CONVERSION OF AUSTRALIA

O God, Who hast appointed Mary, Help of Christians, St Francis Xavier, and St Therese of the Infant Jesus Patrons of Australia, grant that through their intercession our brethren outside the Church may receive the light of faith, so that Australia may become one in faith under one Shepherd. Through Christ our Lord. R/. Amen.

Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Francis Xavier, pray for us.
St Therese of the Infant Jesus, pray for us.