Category Archives: Sacred Heart Friday

More on the “Sacred Heart Prayer Book” by “Brother James”

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This Sacred Heart Friday post is an update about something from earlier this year.

In “Mother Angelica and the Sacred Heart” I mentioned her using the ‘Sacred Heart Prayer Book.’

Something about the book intrigued me and I made some inquiries. I contacted SS Peter and Paul Parish parish in San Francisco where Brother James was when the book was published and asked if they knew anything about him or the book. The only thing they were able to tell me was that Br. James had left the Salesians quite some time ago. My contact (and I can’t tell from the name they are male or female, the first name sounds like a surname) has been with the parish since 2000 and had thought Brother James left around 1990. The person also told me that they get an inquiry about the book every 3-5 years! The contact suggested I try the Salesians provincial office for that region. And so I did! I got a reply within a few hours! Salesians are really on the ball in responding to inquiries right away! I’m impressed!  

Brother James’ real name is James Marolus, and I was told that he left the Salesians ‘a number of years ago.’ The Sacred Heart Prayer Book was self-published; which explains why the publisher’s name no longer comes up anywhere: if it had been a regular publisher there would have been a bigger ‘paper trail’ on the Internet. Anyway, after leaving the Salesians, Br. Marolus ‘found a benevolent Bishop’ who ordained him a priest. Father Marolis ended up in Florida, where he exercised his priestly ministry for a number of years. The Salesians person who wrote to me admitted not knowing much beyond that, except that Fr. Marolis became sick and died.

I ran his name through Google search, DuckDuckGo, and StartPage. Much of what I learned confirmed everything I was told. He is not listed on any obituary site that I ran his name through. If he is still alive, 

then he’d be 94 or 95. (This does not mean that the Salesian was incorrect about him being dead. He did admit to not knowing much and perhaps they assumed he’s dead?) And these ‘name lookup’ sites are notoriously incorrect: some of them list my sister as being alive despite her dying in 1988.

I have made further inquiries through people I know with contacts with the Salesians, but so far nothing’s turned up. If anything changes, I’ll update this post.

The book is no longer in print, and its availability online varies.  (You will have to do a search for “Sacred Heart Prayer Book Brother James” or variations on that to distinguish it from the thousands of books with similar titles.) 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Part 13

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Today is December 8th, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s also Friday, meaning it’s time for my weekly Sacred Heart Friday post! 

The fact that today’s feast falls on a Friday this time around helped me to come up with the post. I wrote this back in August or September, but realized it would be perfect for today and thus kept it in the local drafts folder.

It isn’t explicit or all that implicit in the Bible; you’d have to ponder certain events and extrapolate from them quite a ways to arrive at the following (which is why non-Catholic theologians never come up with anywhere near the things Catholic ones have, who are guided by the right use of human reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And, throw in a fair number of approved Marian Apparitions and private revelations….)

Many medieval and faithful contemporary theologians agree that God created Mary for the sole purpose of being the Mother of Jesus. She wasn’t just some random girl that God picked out to be the Mother of His Son. The idea is laughable. The single most important event in the history of humanity, the Incarnation, would not have a single element in it that was a ‘causal’ or ‘happenstance’ decision. Everything, and I mean, E V E R Y T H I N G that is a sequence in God’s decision-making process (to use our manner of speaking because God, being omniscient and omnipotent, doesn’t need to employ a ‘process’ to arrive at things, He gets it all instantaneously) is tremendously important. God’s Will is how the Universe is run. How He accomplishes things and how they are accomplished is important. And if He wanted His Divine Son to be born of a woman, then you’d better believe that that woman is not going to be just any ordinary female picked at random. Any act of God, no matter how seemingly trivial, is vitally important and contains lessons. The Mother of God would be created specifically to bear God’s Son and therefore accorded all the privileges, benefits, and advantages that such a woman deserves. 

The Church Fathers and theologians through the Medieval era developed the belief that God planned Mary’s creation from all eternity. When she was conceived she was gifted with being “full of grace,” that is, so full of the plenitude of God’s free gifts of supernatural help that she lacked Original Sin from the moment of her conception. As a result of this, she lacked the hindrances that arose from Original Sin. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were perfect. They were genetically perfect, lived in harmony with God’s Will, and benefitted from that union, which probably included superior knowledge of things (except for the knowledge of Good and Evil, which was the carrot used by Satan to tempt them and wasn’t needed by them since they didn’t naturally do evil because they didn’t have to, given their relationship with God. Except for that one time when their Free Will was corrupted by Satan and all Hell broke loose.)

Mary, lacking Original Sin, was in the state Adam and Eve were in before the Fall. Therefore, she was in perfect harmony and union with God and from her conception grew in the love and knowledge of God. The Church Fathers and Medieval theologians also taught that she possessed full use of reason, which was likely true given her Immaculate state. (You have to ponder and meditate on what was lost by our First Parents through Original Sin. The implications of the Fall are glossed over because we’ve read Genesis 3 too often and it’s frequently not taken seriously because of the imagery of a snake tempting a woman with an apple. The profundity is missed.) 

OK, now to connect this with the topic of this post. Mary lived in perfect harmony with God while in the womb. She loved Him, and possessing the use of reason, knew Him. As we read in Scripture, sometimes something happened and Mary ‘pondered it in her heart.’ This was mentioned more than once so we can infer it was a natural part of her personality and behavior. She was the perfect contemplative. There’s no reason why this did not occur while she was in the womb. In her love and knowledge of God, she pondered Him in her heart. 

God, being a Trinity, and so where One member is the other Two also are, when Mary loved and pondered God the Father, she also was doing so for the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word that was yet to be made flesh and dwell within her. Whether she knew that the Word was to be born in her is open to conjecture. (‘No,’ in the approved private revelation of the Blessed Mother to the Venerable Mary of Agreda in the epic “Mystical City of God.”) However, through her participation (according to our way of speaking) in the hypostatic union, her heart also beat in union with the Word’s. (But the Word wasn’t made flesh yet, how can there be a heart? Easy. The Word still loved. St. Maximilian Kolbe focused often on the fact that the Holy Spirit is the intense love that the Father and the Son have for each other. It is so intense that it manifests from all eternity as the Third Person of the Trinity (my language may be a tad imprecise, but I’m just an armchair theologian. 😉 )

And so there you have it. Mary’s heart, by virtue of her Immaculate Conception, was linked to Jesus’ while he was still dwelling solely with the Father and the Spirit in Heaven. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Sacred Heart Devotion and the Works of Mercy

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I almost gave up on coming up with a topic for today’s Sacred Heart Friday post. Then I got a wee bit of inspiration and decided to look at Mass readings for this upcoming Sunday, which is the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. I got nothin’ from the First Reading, same for the Responsorial Psalm. St. Paul let me down with nothing in his Letter used for the Second Reading. (Just kidding, you ol’ namesake, you!)

But, the Gospel. Yumpinious Yumpiniorum! 

It is from Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said to his disciples:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,

and all the angels with him,

he will sit upon his glorious throne,

and all the nations will be assembled before him. 

And he will separate them one from another,

as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 

He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 

Then the king will say to those on his right,

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. 

Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

a stranger and you welcomed me,

naked and you clothed me,

ill and you cared for me,

in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say,

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,

or thirsty and give you drink? 

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,

or naked and clothe you? 

When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

And the king will say to them in reply,

‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did

for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left,

‘Depart from me, you accursed,

into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food,

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

a stranger and you gave me no welcome,

naked and you gave me no clothing,

ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

Then they will answer and say,

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty

or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,

and not minister to your needs?’

He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you,

what you did not do for one of these least ones,

you did not do for me.’

And these will go off to eternal punishment,

but the righteous to eternal life.”

 

And all of that reminded me of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy:

 

The Corporal Works of Mercy:

• To feed the hungry;

• To give drink to the thirsty;

• To clothe the naked;

• To shelter the homeless;

• To care for the sick;

• To ransom the captive/visit the imprisoned

• To bury the dead.

 

The Spiritual Works of Mercy:

• To instruct the ignorant;

• To counsel the doubtful;

• To admonish sinners;

• To bear wrongs patiently;

• To forgive offenses willingly;

• To comfort the afflicted;

• To pray for the living and the dead.

If you’ve been following along with all these Sacred Heart Friday posts, you must be acutely aware of the reparative aspect of the Sacred Heart Devotion: that we offer up sacrifices in reparation for the sins of others.

Well, we can attach the working out of the devotion to doing the Works of Mercy. Take a look over the list: there are quite a few (if not all) which, when combined with the Devotion, help in making reparation for others’ sins.

Perhaps when Jesus comes again, there will be fewer goats and more sheep.

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The Sacred Heart and the Miraculous Medal

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For this Sacred Heart Friday, I want to point out that the Sacred Heart image is on the reverse side of the Miraculous Medal. 

Medal copy 0

This may not be shocking, ground-breaking, or particularly profound, but you’d be surprised how many people aren’t aware of this. So, when you wear your Miraculous Medal, or hand them out to random people on the street, you’re connectingnto Jesus’ SSacred Heart and helping to spread the devotion!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Sacred Heart and the Mystical Body of Christ

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For this Sacred Heart Friday, I’m writing a short piece on the Sacred Heart and the Mystical Body of Christ.

St. Paul wrote that all Christians as members of Christ, so that with Him, they form one Mystical Body. (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) When one suffers, all suffer. When one rejoices, all rejoice. The Sacred Heart burns with love for all the members of the Mystical Body. Our acts of reparation for the sins of others help heal it.

I read somewhere that all sin is public; you may think your sin is a private matter but in reality, it causes harm to the Mystical Body. This is why we have to go to Confession. Even though we confess in private to the priest, it is considered public. And this is why when we make reparation for the sins of others, as is the key part of devotion to the Sacred Heart, then the Mystical Body can be healed.

Lift one another in prayer. “Iron sharpens iron,” (Proverbs 27:17.) We strengthen each other. Return the love of the Sacred Heart through acts of reparation. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Sacred Heart and the Little Way

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For this Sacred Heart Friday, I’d like to post a little thought-piece on a relationship between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieux.

The Sacred Heart is, as you must know by now, the intense love that God has for humanity.  A love so great that He gave up His only Son so that we would be redeemed from our sins and be restored to His friendship. A key part of that is our response to that love: we return it by offering sacrifices and prayers in reparation for other people’s sins. God died for us, He suffered for our sins even though He was sinless Himself. We ‘pay it forward’ so to speak in this manner. In making reparations for the sins of others (as well as our own, but it’s important to recall the ‘otherness’ of the act) we extend Christ’s sacrifice. Although He died so that all may have life and have it abundantly with Him in Heaven, by making reparations we participate in what St. Paul mentioned in Colossians 1:24,

‘For now I rejoice in my passion on your behalf, and I complete in my flesh the things that are lacking in the Passion of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the Church.’

So essentially the practice of the Sacred Heart Devotion helps us to work this out.

Now, the Little Way of St. Therese is the act of doing little things with great love. Her Little Way is described as the ‘easy’ path to Heaven. We needn’t worry about doing mighty deeds or being great evangelists and so forth. If we just focus on doing our daily tasks but doing them with love, that may go a great way toward sanctifying ourselves and others. How? By doing ‘little things’ with great love, be it sweeping the floor, picking up something a person dropped, or whatever, we conquer our pride and self-love. These are the great sources of sin. 

Working out the Little Way can augment the Sacred Heart practices. It’s like a devotional ‘two-for,’ two sanctifying or reparative practices in one!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Sacred Heart and the Feast of Mother Most Admirable – October 20

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For this Sacred Heart Friday post I did a search for “October 20 and the Sacred Heart,” and not expecting to find much, perhaps a feast day for a saint dedicated to it. I didn’t, but the first hit was this:

Feast of Mater Admirabilis – Academy Of The Sacred Heart (LA):

On October 20 every year (unless a weekend), the Sacred Heart community celebrated the Feast of Mater Admirabilis, which translates to “Mother Most Admirable” and is the title of a representation of Our Lady as a young girl wearing pink. Each year, a senior, chosen by her classmates, represents Mary in a tableau at the traditional Mater Liturgy.

The Academy of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic, Independent All-Girls school Grades 1 – 12 in New Orleans, Louisiana. They have roots dating back to post-Revolutionary France and count as their founders St. Rose Philippine Duchesne and St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.

There is more information here: The Feast of Mater Admirabilis: A Special Day for the Society of the Sacred Heart

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

October 13th: the Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary! Part 12

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Today is October 13th, the day we recall the “Miracle of the Sun” event at Fatima in 1917. This was intended to be a warning. Our Lady said at Fatima, ‘War is punishment for sin.” World War I was raging at the time and among her warnings was that a worse war would take place if her warnings went unheeded. They were and it did. What were her warnings? One was that the Pope and all the bishops in union with him would consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Although consecrations did take place, they were either too late or improperly done. The consecration request finally was done properly in 1984 with Pope (now Saint) John Paul II. There were other warnings, such as the increasingly offensive fashion styles (conservative and almost modest by today’s standards) and about sexual sin being the chief cause of why souls go to Hell.

Those are also being ignored. You wonder how much longer Heaven will tolerate being ignored. 

As we’ve already seen with several of these “Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary” posts, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is intimately united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On this Sacred Heart Friday, I would like to remind readers of this duality and how it can be used to at the personal level, increase your spiritual growth, and at a larger level, help combat evil in the world.

The personal level: recall the Fatima Message of prayer, penance, and especially reparation for sins. Now, combine that with the Sacred Heart devotion which essentially calls for the same thing. We return God’s love for us with prayer and acts of sacrifice in reparation for our and others’ sins. This increases the flow of grace into our souls, helps us beat back the attacks of the Devil and its minions, and sensitizes us to the sufferings of others (a natural side effect of concern for others sinning and the Hellish consequences of that.) We begin to become more aware of the humanity of other people; even those who do us harm. We see them as sick and broken. The wounded harm others when their wounds are not dressed.

The larger level: essentially an extension of the first. We become the change we wish to see in others and in reforming our own lives we can serve as examples for others. They want what we have. There is also the transformation at the spiritual level: our acts of prayer and repentance in some manner affect change in others. It calls grace down from Heaven and Mary distributes it to whom she wills.

So, I suppose one benefit of these “Alliance of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary” posts is the reminder to remember the Message of Fatima and the need to live it.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Scruples

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Today is Sacred Heart Friday; it was also the First Friday of the month but due to health issues I missed going to Mass. I have no idea what number Friday I was on, having done nine consecutive First Friday’s numerous times over the past few years. So, I’ll just “start over” next month. 

It’s important not to get too legalistic or scrupulous about devotions. If something happens and you fail to meet the requirements, trust that God understands. You may still get the graces and such like promised, given the circumstances. God is not a lawyer or an accountant, counting up merits and demerits. Scrupulousness may harken back to our drinking days when we just had to make sure we ‘had enough’ for the weekend; calculating from a number of factors: availability of funds, liquor store hours and so forth.

Anyway, it’s October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary. Expect a few posts on that over the next few weeks (including an ANNOUNCEMENT.)

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

St. Michael the Archangel and the Reign of the Sacred Heart

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Today is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel (technically, it’s for all three Archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, but since I just completed a Novena to St. Michael, this post is focused on him. I promised Gabriel and Raphael that they’ll get their own post someday. Incidentally, this was originally just St. Michael’s Day, “Michaelmas,” in the pre-Vatican II liturgical calendar. Gabriel and Raphael had their own days before 1962.)  

In coming up with today’s Sacred Heart Friday post, I ran across this prayer:

For the Reign of the Sacred Heart

O Mary Immaculate, great Queen of Heaven and earth and our gentle advocate, we beg Thee to intercede for us. Pray God to send St. Michael and the holy Angels to ward off all the obstacles contrary to the reign of the Sacred Heart in our souls, our families, our country and in the whole world.

And thou, O holy Michael, Prince of the Heavenly hosts, from our hearts we beg thee to come to our aid.

Defend us against the rage of Satan. Through the Divine power bestowed on thee by God, after securing victory for the Church here below, guide our souls to our eternal home. Amen.

St. Michael, first champion of the Kingship of Christ, pray for us!

Source: Catholic Tradition

It beautifully combined devotion to St. Michael with fighting for the reign of the Sacred Heart in the souls of everyone. It is a prayer very pertinent to what’s going on today.

 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)