May 31- Feast of the Visitation

  

 May is Mary's month, a month we pay special attention to the rosary. The Visitation is on of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Check out this small hardbound book by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn,  Praying the Rosary.  Click on the cover for more information.

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Here's an excerpt:

The Gospels show that the gaze of Mary varied depending upon the circumstances of life. So it will be with us. Each time we pick up the holy beads to recite the Rosary, our gaze at the mystery of Christ will differ depending on where we find ourselves at that moment.

Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14) [Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 10].

As we pray the Rosary, then, we join with Mary in contemplating Christ. With her, we remember Christ, we proclaim Him, we learn from Him, and, most importantly, as we raise our voices in prayer and our hearts in contemplation of the holy mysteries, this “compendium of the Gospel” itself, we are conformed to Him.

Also, check out this post from 2003, in which Michael Dubruiel narrates the events of one of his "rosary walks."

Michael Dubruiel: Pentecost Octave

   

Steps to Take as You Follow Christ

Ask— What do I do with God’s spirit?

Seek—From a prayer posture, concentrate on your breathing. As

you inhale, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, to animate

your every action to do his will. As you exhale, breathe the name

from the core of your being: Jesus. Continue to meditate on him.

Knock—Meditate on Galatians 6:7–9. Reflect on the difference

between a living person and a corpse. Are most of your actions,

actions of sowing in the flesh or sowing to the spirit? Ask God

for patience that you might endure in all things by sowing to the

spirit.

Transform Your Life—Make it a habit to pray the prayer of

Jesus from the cross whenever you find yourself tempted to do

something that you know is not of God: “Father, into your hands

I commend my Spirit.” This prayer that Jesus has given us is the

key to moving from sowing in the flesh to sowing to the spirit.

-The Power of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel 
 

Michael Dubruiel: Pentecost Octave

  

The letter to the Hebrews draws a strong connection
between the cross and prayer. Because every moment of our
earthly existence is threatened by death, and we know neither the
day nor the hour when that existence will come to an end, we,
too, need to cry out to the God who can save us. Like Moses, we
need the help of our fellow Christians to hold up our arms when
they grow tired. We, too, need the help of the Holy Spirit to
make up for what is lacking in our prayer. 

-The Power of the Cross 

Pentecost - a Glorious Mystery

   

 Michael Dubruiel conceived and put together the small hardbound book, Praying the Rosary.  Click on the cover for more information.

. 

Here's an excerpt:

The Gospels show that the gaze of Mary varied depending upon the circumstances of life. So it will be with us. Each time we pick up the holy beads to recite the Rosary, our gaze at the mystery of Christ will differ depending on where we find ourselves at that moment.

Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14) [Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 10].

As we pray the Rosary, then, we join with Mary in contemplating Christ. With her, we remember Christ, we proclaim Him, we learn from Him, and, most importantly, as we raise our voices in prayer and our hearts in contemplation of the holy mysteries, this “compendium of the Gospel” itself, we are conformed to Him.

Also, check out this post from 2003, in which Michael Dubruiel narrates the events of one of his "rosary walks."

Pentecost Vigil

  The Mass Readings for the Pentecost Vigil: 

On the last and greatest day of the feast,
Jesus stood up and exclaimed,
“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
As Scripture says:
    Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”

He said this in reference to the Spirit
that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
There was, of course, no Spirit yet,
because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Books by Michael Dubruiel:

Pentecost Novena

 Novenas were such a popular farm of Catholic devotion because the liturgy remained largely locked up in silent Latin and was simply an obligation to those people who were not inclined to use missals. Most people, in fact, did not use or even own a missal. Many who sat passively at the liturgy enthusiastically sang and prayed at the novena. In the early 1940s, when I first served as an altar boy at the novenas to Our Lady, one of my crusty Irish neighbors asked me if I was on my way to that Protestant service. He saw it as Protestant because it was in the vernacular and it was popular. He was probably a bit suspicious, too, because unlike Mass, you could enjoy a novena.  

From Michael Dubruiel's The Church's Most Powerful Novenas. 

A novena is a term used to describe a continuous praying of a formula nine consecutive times, usually nine consecutive days or once a week for nine weeks. The number nine derives from the time Mary and the Apostles waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit between Ascension and Pentecost. (from the Catholic Encyclopedia) This purse-sized prayer guide contains many of the Church's treasured petitions to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints, including Saint Anthony, Saint Peregrine and Saint Therese of Lisieux. A section devoted to American Saints includes a prayer to the North American Jesuit Martyrs. A new ?quick novena? from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta appears here for the first time in print. Illustrated throughout with art and religious images, each prayer in The Church's Most Powerful Novenas includes the history of that particular novena. A listing of shrines connected with novenas in the book is included. Although the practice of praying novenas has only been around since the 1600s, believers have embraced this commitment of devotion as a unique aspect of our Catholic identity.

Pentecost Novena

 If your memory goes back before Vatican II, you will recall that every respectable parish had its perpetual or ongoing novena. These were in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ under some title, or they were devotions to Mary as Our Lady of Perpetual Help (originally a devotion of the Eastern churches), Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, or even Our Lady of Sorrows. Various saints had their own novenas, usually preceding their feast days; but St. Anthony was so popular that he might find himself bombarded by prayer on a weekly basis throughout the year. Parish novenas had several things in common: popular hymns and prayers in the vernacular, a devotional sermon, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. These expressions of popular piety were rather rigidly controlled. The hymns and the prayers represented the best examples of the folk religion and piety that most of our ancestors had packed Into their shabby baggage as they came to this country as immigrants through the "golden door." In Ellis Island's beautiful and moving museum is a remarkable display of several religious articles of the immigrants — Jewish prayer stoles. Lutheran Bibles, and, of course, rosaries and novena books. 

From Michael Dubruiel's The Church's Most Powerful Novenas. 

A novena is a term used to describe a continuous praying of a formula nine consecutive times, usually nine consecutive days or once a week for nine weeks. The number nine derives from the time Mary and the Apostles waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit between Ascension and Pentecost. (from the Catholic Encyclopedia) This purse-sized prayer guide contains many of the Church's treasured petitions to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints, including Saint Anthony, Saint Peregrine and Saint Therese of Lisieux. A section devoted to American Saints includes a prayer to the North American Jesuit Martyrs. A new ?quick novena? from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta appears here for the first time in print. Illustrated throughout with art and religious images, each prayer in The Church's Most Powerful Novenas includes the history of that particular novena. A listing of shrines connected with novenas in the book is included. Although the practice of praying novenas has only been around since the 1600s, believers have embraced this commitment of devotion as a unique aspect of our Catholic identity.