ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL NOVENA

      NOVENA TO SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

                     (June 20 – June 28)

                         Novena Prayer

O blessed apostles Peter and Paul! I take you this day for my special protectors and advocates with God. In all humility I rejoice with thee, blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, because thou art the rock whereon God hath built his Church; and I rejoice with thee, too, blessed Paul, because thou wast chosen of God for a vessel of election, and preacher of the truth throughout the world. Ask for me, I pray you both, lively faith, firm hope, and perfect charity; entire detachment from myself, contempt of the world, patience in adversity, humility in prosperity, attention in prayer, purity of heart, right intention in my works, diligence in the fulfilment of all the duties of my state of life, constancy in my good resolutions, resignation to the holy will of God, perseverance in his grace even unto death, that, by your joint intercession and your glorious merits, I may overcome the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and be made worthy to stand before the face of the chief and eternal pastor of souls, Jesus Christ, to enjoy him and to love him for all eternity, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

                       Pater noster

Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur Nomen Tuum. Adveniat regnum Tuum, fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris, et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

                         Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Will be done, on earth as in heaven and on the earth. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.

                      Ave Maria

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

                     Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

                  Gloria Patri

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

                   Glory be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

         From the Raccolta

The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VI., by a rescript from the Office of the Secretary of Memorials, July 28, 1778, granted to all the faithful who, with at least contrite heart and devotion, shall say this prayer, together with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory be to the Father: An indulgence of one hundred days, once a day. A plenary indulgence, on any of the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, or on any of the nine days preceding, or within their octaves, to those who, being truly penitent, after confession and communion, shall visit with devotion a church or an altar dedicated to these holy apostles, and say there, as directed above, this prayer, praying for holy Church and for the Sovereign Pontiff. These indulgences, plenary and partial, were confirmed forever by his Holiness, Pope Pius IX., by a rescript, June 18, 1876.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST NATIVITY NOVENA - FIRST DAY

    

  Nativity of St. John the Baptist

         (June 15 – June 23)

O glorious St. John the Baptist...

Greatest prophet among those born of women, although thou wast sanctified in thy mother’s womb and didst live a most innocent life, nevertheless it was thy will to retire into the wilderness, there to devote thyself to the practice of austerity and penance; obtain for us of thy Lord the grace to be wholly detached, at least in our hearts, from earthly goods, and to practice Christian mortification with interior recollection and with the spirit of holy prayer.

St. John the Baptist, precursor of Christ, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, shining lamp of the world, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, angel of purity before thy birth, Pray for us.

 O most zealous Apostle...

Who, without working any miracle on others,  but solely by the example of thy life of penance  and the power of thy word,  didst draw after thee the multitudes, in order to dispose them to receive the Messias worthily and to listen to His heavenly doctrine;  grant that it may be given unto us,  by means of the example of a holy life  and the exercise of every good work,  to bring many souls to God,  but above all  those souls that are enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance  and that are led astray by vice.

St. John the Baptist, intrepid preacher of truth, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, voice crying in the wilderness, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, miracle of mortification and penance, Pray for us.

O Martyr invincible...

Who, for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, didst with heroic constancy withstand the impiety of Herod even at the cost of thine own life, and didst rebuke him openly for his wicked and dissolute life; by thy prayers obtain for us a heart, brave and generous,  in order that we may overcome all human respect and openly profess our faith  in loyal obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ,  our divine Master.

St. John the Baptist, example of profound humility, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, great defender of holy matrimony, Pray for us.

St. John the Baptist, glorious martyr of zeal for God’s holy law, Pray for us.

O God, we rejoice at the apostolate of Saint John the Baptist, though whom we came to know our Redeemer and King. Through his intercession we implore…

              (Mention your request)

We offer this prayer to Thee God the Father, through Christ Our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, And blessed is the fruit Of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Note: The faithful who devoutly offer some prayers in honor of St. John the Baptist, with the intention of so doing for nine continuous days, may gain: (1) an indulgence of five years once each of the days; and (2) a plenary indulgence on the usual conditions, at the end of the novena.

Eleison Comments by Mgr. Williamson – Number CDLXV (465)

Archbishop’s Aim

Who puts the Archbishop’s work under this Rome

Betrays the Faith and him, and Catholics’ home.

In this fateful month for the Society of St Pius X, June 2016, when we hear that some 30 Superiors will meet in order to decide whether to accept Rome’s latest offer of official recognition, it is surely a good moment to correct misunderstandings as to the intentions of its Founder, Archbishop Lefebvre (1905–1991). Some claim that his course was unsteady, that he “zig-zagged,” veering from side to side. Others pretend that above all he sought Rome’s recognition for his Society. Without having to claim that he was infallible one needs to remind the forgetful Society of what he was all about: both errors are corrected by the same observation, namely that his basic motivation was to glorify God and to save souls by serving God’s one true Church by defending the Faith, and to defend the Faith by founding the Society of St Pius X to form priests who would preserve the doctrine, sacraments and Mass of Catholic Tradition.

Now the great obstacle in the Archbishop’s way was the churchmen of Vatican II whose main priority was (and remains) to please not God but modern man, who has moved far away from God. So, now as then, they turned away from God (at least objectively, subjectively God knows), and sought to change God’s Church and her Faith, doctrine, sacraments and Mass by a humanistic “renewal.”

In disgust or despair the Archbishop might have taken himself off into a corner with his Society, and left these churchmen to perish with their Conciliar Revolution. But firstly, from the 1974 Roman visitation of Écône onwards, they came after him with his work because they could not let it demonstrate their perversity. They could not afford to leave him alone. And secondly, if he could do anything to bring Tradition to the Romans and the Romans back to Tradition, it would benefit through them the worldwide Church and not just his little Society. For indeed, however misguided they were, they st ill occupied “the seat of Moses” (cf. Mt XXIII, 2), and so from 1975 onwards the Archbishop went to and from Rome, until their prevarication in 1988 over granting another bishop to the Society proved once and for all that they could no longer be spoken to with words but only with actions.

But “Stat Crux dum Volvitur Orbis,” meaning that the Cross stands still while the whole world is in revolution. Anchored in Tradition, the Archbishop was basically standing still, but he was dealing with churchmen and a situation of the Church which had slipped that anchor and was henceforth adrift. So as they drifted left, so he needed to steer right, whereas if they seemed to veer right again (as in late 1987 and early 1988) so he veered left (e.g. in the Protocol of May 5, 1988), but it was always their veering or the evolving situation (e.g. the deteriorating Novus Ordo Mass) that determined his “zig-zagging,” and not the other way round. His own aim was steady – the defense of the Faith.

It was for this same reason that, once the churchmen’s prevarication on that same 5th of May in 1988 was clear beyond any reasonable doubt, then after a night’s reflection he renounced on May 6th that Protocol which could have obtained Rome’s official recognition for the Society, and he cut off all merely diplomatic relations with Rome, not primarily to save his Society but to protect Catholic Tradition for the entire Church. Doctrine had to take over from diplomacy, and from then on until his death two and a half years later, even while behaving with respect towards the Church officials whom he had castigated as “Antichrists,” he declared that the Faith had to come first in the form of the pre-Conciliar Popes’ anti-liberal and anti-modern doctrinal Encyclicals. By his fidelity to Church doctrine he was in the driving-seat, and the Romans knew it. What a contrast with his successors at the head of the Society, fawning on the betrayers of Church doctrine and Tradition, and humiliated by them! Let these successors of the Archbishop just read again what was like his farewell address to them of September 6, 1990.

Kyrie eleison.