This advocacy piece would merely be a paranoid, conspiratorialist rave–except that the actual evidence is all in the notes. (This posting isn’t intended so much as an article, as a set of easily accessible notes for making arguments.)
You can sometimes learn more from your presumptive ‘opponents’ than from your alleged friends, who can actually be acting in Pecksniffian self-interest, presenting viewpoints which don’t reflect their actual understanding, agendas intended to bring about certain effects over target populations not in their interests but in those of elite groups, “the better classes”. Such masked public personae can use economic leverage to advance ideologies at significant variance from truth, on the presumption that they know better than you what you need to know. Dissent from these dark movements can come from any part of the political spectrum; we can’t afford arbitrarily to exclude the viewpoints even of people with whom we mostly disagree, but we have to take what truth they possess as it comes, however partial.
Regardless of the functional debilities of extreme leftism, Noam Chomsky still aspired to the tenet of classical liberalism, that “I strongly uphold your right to your point of view, no matter how strongly I disagree with you”. It’s sometimes worth listening to what he had to say.
Noam Chomsky, citing Ralph Waldo Emerson on the elites’ rationale for agitating for universal, compulsory education: “The grounds on which eminent public servants urge the claims of popular education, is fear” … [that, in their words, he says] … “This country is filling up with thousands and millions of voters, and you must educate them to keep them from our throats”, meaning, “educate them the right way,” keep their perspectives and their understanding narrow and restricted, discourage free and independent thought, and frighten them into obedience –something that’s done over and over in the schools as well–we’ve all experienced it.”
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Before factory schooling, young people, whether geniuses or working people, were free to write their own life script.
WE breed water dogs not to bite game birds, we hood falcons to control them, when race horses run too fast we “handicap” them with lead weights, and when students are in danger of independent learning so that they threaten to evade being conditioned into mindless consumers and docile, unquestioning employees of giant corporations, we subject them to “schooling”.
College graduates today have been denied, by design, a basic liberal-arts education that was freely available to many 1-room schoolhouse, elementary students prior to the imposition of universal forced schooling in the period 1880-1920. It was a result of planned, deliberate deprecation of curricula and intense, adverse behavioral conditioning, which long preceded their high school graduation. A vast store of evidence for this assertion, unknown to the general public, is in freely available authors in a tradition of “studies of Deliberate Dumbing Down K-12”. (Author list at the end of the article.)
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The issue of deliberate dumbing down (DDD), of unimaginably vast scope, centers on the confidential history, virtually never discussed openly in the press or taught in schools or colleges themselves, that contrasts the rigidly controlled, standard anti-intellectual conditioning children receive today in public schools, with the extreme opposite, self-directed, radical freedom which prevailed in America prior to the railroads (1840).
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America from the Colonial/Revolutionary period, until the mid-19th century, was an outpost of personal independence, granted immunity by geographical isolation, from the restrictive model of Europe’s old-world, highly stratified class system. (America was at a colonial “margin” at some distance from the imperial center, England. The historical dissolution in the mother country of the ancient, manorial-feudal medieval society in which peasants had traditional rights to the land which their lord could not abrogate, had been disrupted centuries earlier in England than in America, with the enclosure of common lands for specialized sheep-grazing for the Italian wool trade by the lower gentry, socially rapacious behavior in common with the higher nobility, friends of Henry VIII, in the despoiling of Church lands built up over centuries of free labor accumulation under the evangelical counsel of Poverty. This pattern of dissolution only encroached on the colonial margin in America, centuries after it happened at the center, in England.) For instance, it was illegal in 19th century England to teach to lower class children, what John Taylor Gatto termed “the active literacies”, writing, public speaking and the cultivation of eloquence.
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Concurrent with the liberal Protestant biblical studies (“Historical-Critical Method”) of Adolf von Harnack in the late 19th century which “proved” that biblical accounts of miracles were “fantasies”, agnostic or atheist northern German philosophers were instrumental in enlarging on the rationalist foundation of the French Enlightenment until the late 19th century rise of the Fabian Socialist Society (symbol: a wolf in sheep’s clothing) espoused by the high architects of compulsory, universal, dumbed-down schooling. In contrast with the 99% of humanity which has believed in some sort of God, “when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe nothing, they’ll believe anything”.
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“There can’t be a God, nor any Heaven”, (the outlook that “proves one is a ‘scientist‘ “), therefore, let’s “create” heaven on earth, “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”, (never to be resurrected into any eternal paradise), continually “improving” humanity, reinventing ourselves, on Darwin’s racist model of human “survival of the fittest”, leading to Hitler’s death factories and ultimately, today, to Bill Gates’ great purge of the “excess” of the majority of humanity.
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A free people would never accept this. Therefore, starting in the mid-19th century, American children had to be wrested out of their family traditions and religions by secretly socialistic, anti-intellectual conditioning, subjecting them, in compulsory, universal, police-enforced, deliberately dumbed-down schooling, beyond the parents’ knowledge and understanding, to the endless drudgery of factory schooling, “at least keeping them off the streets and out of trouble”, precisely from the age when their brains should be furiously, delightfully absorbing everything about the wonderful, fascinating world.
Cardinal Fernández Clarifies: “Co-redemptrix” Off Limits in Official Vatican Documents, Permitted in Private Devotion
In comments on “Mater Populi Fidelis,” the DDF Prefect explains what the doctrinal Note means in stating the Marian title is “always inappropriate.”
ROME, 26 November 2025 — Three weeks after Mater Populi Fidelis sparked debate over its statement that the Marian title Co-redemptrix is “always inappropriate,” the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has clarified that the phrase is not a sweeping rejection of the title itself. The Cardinal said the word “always” applies only to official Church usage from this point forward, not to every context in which the title might be used.
In comments after Tuesday’s Vatican press conference on Una Caro, the DDF’s new doctrinal Note on monogamy, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández said the statement found in MPF n. 22—that “it is always inappropriate” to use the title Co-redemptrix to define Mary’s cooperation—“isn’t meant to judge” past affirmations by saints, doctors, and popes, but that “from now on” it will not be used “either in the liturgy, that is, in liturgical texts, or in the official documents of the Holy See.”
Fernández explained that after decades of theological study—first requested by John Paul II and carried forward by Cardinal Ratzinger—the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has concluded that the title should no longer appear in magisterial or liturgical texts, not because its underlying doctrine has been rejected, but because the term itself risks pastoral misunderstanding today. He argued that Mater Populi Fidelis “conserves and makes explicit the positive aspects” contained in the title, namely “the unique cooperation of Mary in the work of redemption,” claiming the phrase appears “200 times” in the text.
In fact, the phrase “unique cooperation” appears only once in MPF; the word “unique” occurs 29 times, while the analogous term “singular” appears six times, including footnotes. Furthermore, Marian theologians have argued that the key problem with Mater Populi Fidelis is that it downplays and obscures Mary’s active cooperation in the work of Redemption. In other words, the issue is not whether the text speaks of Mary’s unique cooperation, but how it articulates the nature of that cooperation.
Crucially, Cardinal Fernández also emphasized that the new restriction on the title Co-redemptrix applies solely to the Church’s official language. The faithful who understand the traditional, properly subordinate meaning of the term are not being asked to abandon it in private devotion or informed discussion. The decision sets a standard for magisterial and liturgical texts, not for personal piety.
Were Mariologists Consulted?
At the end of our exchange, the Cardinal also said that the Dicastery consulted “many, many” Mariologists and Christologists in preparing Mater Populi Fidelis.
However, this seems to contradict recent statements of Father Maurizio Gronchi, the Christologist and consultant to the DDF who co-presented the new document on Nov. 4 alongside Cardinal Fernández. In comments to ACI Prensa on Nov. 19, Gronchi said that “no collaborating Mariologists could be found.” He noted that neither faculty members of the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum nor members of the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI, by its Italian acronym) participated in the presentation at the Jesuit Curia—a “silence” that, in his view, “can be understood as dissent.”
According to ACI Prensa, Fr. Gronchi noted that PAMI has a history of active participation in discussions regarding potential dogmatic definitions.
One day later, Father Salvatore Maria Perrella, OSM—a former Professor of Dogmatics and Mariology at the Marianum who was highly esteemed by Pope Benedict XVI and played a key role in past discussions regarding the title Co-redemptrix—told Swiss media that Mater Populi Fidelis ought to have been more carefully considered and refined, and emphasized above all that “it should have been prepared by persons competent in the field.”
Ongoing Theological Debate
While underscoring the legitimacy of the title Co-redemptrix for personal devotion, Cardinal Fernández did not address its use in ongoing theological debate. However, in presenting the new doctrinal note, the Cardinal stressed that its purpose is not to “propose limits.”
If the Catholic Church follows the precedent set in the development of previous Marian dogmas—most notably the Immaculate Conception—theological research, dialogue, and debate are naturally expected to continue. As Fr. Salvatore Perrella noted his recent interview, even a “controversial” document such as Mater Populi Fidelis can be valuable, “because it sparks and sustains debate. In this case, the doctrinal note opens discussions in theology and Mariology, particularly regarding the different dimensions” of Mary’s unique cooperation in the work of Redemption.
Here is my exchange with Cardinal Fernández, preceded by Mater Populi Fidelis n. 22 on the title Co-redemptrix.
22. Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it is always inappropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith, for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). When an expression requires many, repeated explanations to prevent it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the People of God and becomes unhelpful. In this case, the expression “Co-redemptrix” does not help extol Mary as the first and foremost collaborator in the work of Redemption and grace, for it carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ — the Son of God made man for our salvation, who was the only one capable of offering the Father a sacrifice of infinite value — which would not be a true honor to his Mother. Indeed, as the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), Mary directs us to Christ and asks us to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn2:5).
Diane Montagna: Your Eminence, Mater Populi Fedelis no. 22 says, in the Spanish original, that it is “siempre inoportuno” to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation in the work of Redemption. This was translated into Italian as “è sempre inappropriato.” Meanwhile, the English text originally said “it would be inappropriate” to use this title but was then changed to say, “it is always inappropriate”…
Cardinal Fernández: The translator did a softer [English] translation but then he said to us, “Look, I’m not sure about this,” and then it was changed.
But why did you use the word “always” [siempre], especially as the saints, doctors of the Church and popes have used the title “Co-redemptrix,” particularly over the last century. What are you seeking to communicate to the clergy and faithful through the use of the “always”?
That in this moment, after these thirty years of study by the dicastery, there have been various interventions as questions arose. Pope John Paul II himself asked Ratzinger to study the issue. Until that study was done, Pope John Paul II occasionally used “Co-redemptrix.” After that study, and Ratzinger’s response—which we now know—he didn’t use it anymore. But he conserved the positive aspects of the content, that is, the unique cooperation of Mary in the work of redemption.
We use this phrase — the “unique cooperation of Mary in the work of redemption” — I believe 200 times in the document, that is, we conserved and make explicit this positive aspect in the text. But after the study carried out by Ratzinger in response to John Paul II, he didn’t use it anymore. And then there were other times when the dicastery, under Ratzinger and afterward, studied the topic because it was linked to certain apparitions, etc. and Papa Ratzinger closed [the case of] those apparitions with a “Negative” vote. The same thing happened afterward.
With the apparitions, we have been, let’s say, a bit more generous. We try, even if there are aspects that can be confusing, to find the positive aspects and allow the piety of the faithful. However, on this matter, after thirty years of work by the dicastery, the moment had to come for it to be made public—and that is what we have done.
Yes, but why did you use the term “always” [siempre]? Does this refer to the past, especially given that it was used by the saints, doctors and ordinary magisterium?
No, no, no. It refers to this moment. Just as Pope John Paul II himself used it at one time and then didn’t use it anymore. What we believe is that, in the substance behind that word, there are elements that can be accepted and continue to be upheld.
So, does “always” mean “from now on”?
From now on, certainly. It isn’t meant to judge the past at all. It means “from now on.” And moreover, it means above all that this expression [“Co-redemptrix”] will not be used either in the liturgy, that is, in liturgical texts, or in the official documents of the Holy See. If one wishes to express Mary’s unique cooperation in the Redemption, it would be expressed in other ways, but not with this expression, not even in official documents.
That is something that is known, even if perhaps not very widespread. If you, together with your group of friends, believe you understand well the true meaning of this expression, have read the document, and see that its positive aspects are also affirmed there, and you wish to express precisely that within your prayer group or among friends, you may use the title—but it will not be used officially, that is, either in liturgical texts or in official documents.
Thank you very much. Just one final question, did you (i.e. the DDF) consult any Mariologists for Mater Populi Fidelis?
Yes, many, many, as well as theologians who specialize in Christology.
This shortlink
https://www.sing-prayer.org/p/10680
Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, all our actions by Thy holy inspiration; carry them on by Thy gracious assistance;
that every prayer and work of ours may always begin from Thee,
and by Thee be happily ended. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let my ob-ject e__-ver be,
To give glor-y Lord to Thee.
If I work or if I__ rest,
May God’s Ho-ly Name__ be blest.
Grant me grace my all__ to give,
Un-to Him by Whom I live.
Je-sus for Thy help I__ plead,
Mary for me in__-ter-cede. A__-men.
“All the works of the scribes and the Pharisees they do to be seen by men.” (Matthew 23:5) Rather than hollow, insincere actions performed for the sake of garnering prestige from others; or even naturally ethical actions which in themselves are not selfish, merely virtuous in a worldly sense, but which are not dedicated to giving glory to God, and are not specifically done out of love for God, but merely because they “seem” good;—…
…In contrast, actions of even the most modest accomplishment which are done to give Glory to God, and out of love for God, are considered to be exercises of perfect virtue and can help us qualify to receive an eternal reward from God. This comports with the verse “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31)
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Strewing Roses at the Crucifix of Jesus, out of pure love
The name of good works is given to such voluntary actions on the part of man as are in conformity with the will of God, are performed for the love of God, and consequently will be rewarded by God. No action, however excellent, is to be called a good work unless it is voluntary. The compulsory fast of a criminal in prison is not a good work; nor in fact is any action which is not in accordance with the will of God. To spend one’s time in reciting long prayers, instead of accomplishing the duties of one’s station, is not a good work, but a sin. Nor do works which fail in any one particular to correspond to the will of God deserve to be called good works, or to receive a reward. Those actions again, which are not performed for the love of God are not good works. God requires a pure motive on our part. For instance, to give an alms to an importunate beggar merely to get rid of him is not wrong, but it is not a perfect good work. It is an imperfect or natural good work, because it is done from natural motives. But an action performed for God’s sake, because it is the will of God, for love of Christ, in view of an eternal reward or for fear of everlasting punishment, is a perfect, or supernatural good work, and will bear fruit, because it is done in union with Christ (as the branch bears fruit that abides in the vine, John 15:4), and participates in His merits. A plain woolen cloth has a certain worth, but if it be dyed a rich purple color, its value is greatly enhanced. So the good works we perform are of little worth unless they are done for God’s sake. Then they are crimsoned with the blood of Christ, precious in God’s sight, and deserving of a celestial recompense.Actions, although good, if performed for merely natural motives, are worthless in God’s sight. The Pharisees in Christ’s time are a striking instance of this, for they did good works to be seen of men and praised by men. Our Lord blames them for this, and says: “They have received their reward” (Matt. 6:2). If a man subscribes to some charitable object, in order to get his name into the papers, or to get some office of trust, he does not perform a good work, or one deserving of reward. Such works are like a great, empty package which, when put into the balance at the Judgment Day, will have no weight at all. “Man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart” (1 Kings 16:7). It is the intention to which one must look, not the external act; this may appear to be good, but if it is not done in some way in view of our final end, it is worse than useless. He who seeks his own glory in what he does is a thief, for he robs God of what is His due. Some people say we ought to do good for its own sake. They are mistaken, for the act itself is not our highest aim, but a means towards the attainment of that end. We ought to do good for God’s sake. A good work has all the more value in God’s sight, the less it is done in hope of earthly reward. He who does good to the poor who cannot requite him, does a work which is great in God’s eyes, however contemptible it may be in the eyes of the world, because it is done for God. Good works which cost us a great sacrifice are more valuable than others. For this reason Abraham’s obedience in promptly offering his only son at God’s command was so highly praised. Therefore what we do in spite of outward contradiction or inward opposition has more worth before God. Thus the value of our works depends entirely upon whether they are or are not done for the love of God. He does not consider the magnitude of the work, but the amount of love wherewith it is performed. — The Catechism Explained by Fr. Francis Spirago, 1899. “Good Works“.
This means that Country music fans have surrendered their cultural autonomy to robots—they are robotic listeners, machinery has occupied the space between their ears.
During a previous phase, algorithms had self-trained to automatically detect our supposed “preferences” for music in 90 seconds, based on biometric, consumer and cultural attributes.
Now we are being so completely cut out of the process, that there are no human musicians needed, nor any human technicians, the whole process of production and marketing can be performed by non-human, artificial-intelligence agents.
This takes us back to a time when human involvement in music was first being supplanted by electronic means of production and distribution, during the interval from the invention of radio in 1923 to the release of the first sound-cinema “talkie” in 1929.
The question is, were people more authentically musical, before or after the development of electronically augmented music?
This was a dividing line between much greater movements of civilization and culture, than the mere, chronologically-local development of electronic distribution of musical sound.
That dividing line more closely resembles the change from oral poetry to literacy. It involved the Homeric epic poems, which are considered to have been transcribed over a five day periods sometime between 750 and 700 BC. The archetypic image of Homer as blind testifies to the improvisatory oral character of the epic poetry, which, according to early twentieth century studies of Serbo-Croatian coffee house poetic performance by Milman Parry and Albert Lord, consisted of hundreds of thousands, to up to a million, traditional poetic phrases called “formulas”.
A highly adept improvisatory poet would reach into his deep memory repository of those formulas, reconstructing the narration of a poem from those aggregated, memorized phrases—literate people can only remember a few things they write down, non-literate people could memorize whole epics, it was estimated that if every copy of the Baghavad Gita were destroyed, it could instantly be reconstructed completely from memory by any one of millions of people—with the audience esthetically judging the success of the performance. The idea of poetry in our more recent, literate milieu, of the poet carefully preparing the text in the written format, did not pertain to the oral poet’s technique, which largely consisted of extemporaneous arrangements of selections from that voluminous aural archive of poetic formulas.
Students of ancient Greek culture, not necessarily at English universities, but more commonly centered on Greek Orthodox Church parishes, study the Homeric epic poems as the foundation of Western Civilization. It was set up in the 8th century before Christ.
We know of an historically recent example, in the improvisatory music of Art Tatum, the blind poet of the piano, who probably only developed a few hundred of his own “licks”, in comparison with the enormous catalogue of melodic and rhythmic phrases he stored in his head, most having been based on what he heard over his lifetime, from his childhood.
Now some people whose names we know, lived during the more recent, epochal change from human to electronic-synthetic music. My own Mother was born in 1910. In her third year, she was accustomed to getting her entertainment by going to her relatives’ house, where someone played a piano and everyone who was not deaf or tone-deaf, sang; the average person knew the lyrics to 200 songs; there were 300 piano brands when my Mother was 3; there were ten 1-million sheet-music printings every year, with many more in lower denominations, but most music sung in homes, among friends and local society, was traditional, not top-sellers.
The middle girl, on the right, Betty, took the baby to the movies, stayed through several performances, forgot the time, and got in trouble with the frantic parents who couldn’t find the baby.
The music background of the clip, is what music was, prior to radio and talkies, people singing it all themselves and having a terrific time into the bargain.
The other leg of my Mother’s musical experience, was set across a breach in the cultural divide, over in the electronically-augmented sphere of music. Whereas in 1913 she herself was singing with her own voice at her cousins’, a mere twenty years later, in 1933, at the age of 23, she was going to talkies to hear Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and Ramon Navarro sing light-opera, in movies with only the most superficial plot development.
Betty’s High School Graduation Photo from 1929
Music in my Mother’s toddlerhood, was singing with your own voice; in her young-girlhood, it was sitting in a dark movie theatre, letting others do your music for you.
I could hear evidence of my Mother’s early childhood experience with direct singing, when in her 60s, she would lampoon the Fifth Dimension’s 1967 popular song hit, “Up, Up and Away (in My Beautiful, My Beautiful Balloon!)”, which she found ridiculous, whooping her voice up on “Up, Up and AWAY!!!” high In the chorus, but still demonstrating that she could carry a tune.
Now most of the people who have made the AI generated, “Walk My Way” by Breaking Rust, the number one Country song, would have no way of singing the actual lyrics, or actively participating in the music, other than consuming it as passive, drooling thralls.
This is the culmination of developments that were long predicted in speculative fiction. We are used to the obsolescence of humanity itself from the early “Terminator” film franchise. One of the earliest, most influential science-fiction stories in this provenance of humanity’s imminent extinction, in which nearly our only remnant evidence is the presence of AI, robots or artificial intelligent life, the humans who created them being on the verge of extinction, is “The Last Evolution” (1932) by John W. Campbell, Jr.
This shortlink
https://www.sing-prayer.org/p/10501
1 Sweet Sacrament divine,
hid in Thine earthly home,
lo, round Thy lowly shrine,
with suppliant hearts we come;
Jesus, to Thee our voice we raise
in songs of love and heartfelt praise:
sweet Sacrament divine,
sweet Sacrament divine.
3 Sweet Sacrament of rest,
ark from the ocean’s roar,
within Thy shelter blest
soon may we reach the shore;
save us, for still the tempest raves,
save, lest we sink beneath the waves:
sweet Sacrament of rest,
sweet Sacrament of rest.
2 Sweet Sacrament of peace,
dear home for every heart,
where restless yearnings cease
and sorrows all depart;
there in Thine ear all trustfully
we tell our tale of misery:
sweet Sacrament of peace,
sweet Sacrament of peace.
4 Sweet Sacrament divine,
earth’s light and jubilee,
in Thy far depths doth shine
Thy Godhead’s majesty;
sweet light, so shine on us, we pray,
that earthly joys may fade away:
sweet Sacrament divine,
sweet Sacrament divine.
From the Decree Mater Populi Fidelis (Click/Expand or Bypass)
Click ^ again to contract
22. Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. — From the Decree Mater Populi Fidelis issued by Pope Leo XIV on November 4, 2025.
The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has clarified that the phrase is not a sweeping rejection of the title itself. The Cardinal said the word “always” applies only to official Church usage from this point forward, not to every context in which the title might be used.
On the Moral Virtue of Obedience (Click/Expand or Bypass)
The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not. — Matthew 23: 2-3
“Satan can imitate humility, but he cannot imitate obedience.” §26
“Satan can even clothe himself in light, but he does not possess humility nor obedience.” §939
— The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul
Many people who feel scruples that our attention to Mary should not detract from the glory of Jesus, take no account, that it is His own will that we begin our efforts at properly humbling ourselves before Him, by first humbling ourselves to her.
“And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” — Rev. 11:19, Rev. 12:1
But scornful men have coldly said
Thy love was leading me from God;
And yet in this I did but tread,
The very path my Saviour trod;
The very path my Saviour trod.
Traditional Melody,
Catholic Church Hymnal with Music,
1905, p. 171
1. Mother of Mercy, day by day
My love of thee grows more and more;
Thy gifts are strewn upon my way,
Like sands upon the great seashore;
Like sands upon the great seashore.
4. They know but little of thy worth
Who speak these heartless words of thee;
For what did Jesus love on earth,
One half so tenderly as thee?
One half so tenderly as thee?
2. Though poverty and work and woe
The masters of my life may be,
When times are worst, who does not know,
Darkness is light with love of thee?
Darkness is light with love of thee?
5. Get me the grace to love thee more;
Jesus will give if thou wilt plead;
And, Mother, when life’s cares are o’er,
Oh, I shall love thee then indeed;
Oh, I shall love thee then indeed.
3. But scornful men have coldly said
Thy love was leading me from God;
And yet in this I did but tread,
The very path my Saviour trod;
The very path my Saviour trod.
6. Jesus, when His three hours were run,
Bequeathed thee from the Cross to me;
And Oh, how can I love thy Son,
Sweet Mother, if I love not thee?
Sweet Mother, if I love not thee?
1. O purest of creatures,
sweet Mother! sweet Maid!
The one spotless womb wherein
Jesus was laid!
Dark night hath come down on us,
Mother! And we,
Look out for thy shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
6. To sinners what comfort, to
angels what mirth,
That God found one creature un-
fallen on earth,
One spot where His Spirit, un-
troubled could be,
The depth of thy shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
2. Deep night has come down on this
rough-spoken world,
&-the banners of darkness are
boldly unfurled;
&-the tempest tossed Church—
all her eyes are on thee,
They look to thy shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
7. O shine on us brighter than
even, then shine,
For-the highest of honours, dear
Mother! Is thine;
“Conceived without sin,” thy chaste
title e’re be,
Clear light from thy birth-spring, sweet
Star of the Sea!
3. He gazed on thy soul; it was
spotless and fair;
For-the empire of sin—it had
never been there;
None had ever owned thee, dear
Mother! but He,
And-He blessed thy clear shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
8. So worship we God in these
rude latter days;
So worship we Jesus our
Love, when we praise,
His wonderful grace in the
gifts He gave thee,
The gift of clear shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
4. Earth gave Him one lodging; ‘twas
deep in thy breast,
And God found a home where the
sinner finds rest;
His home and His hiding place
both were in thee,
He-was won by thy shining, sweet
Star of the Sea.
9. Deep night hath come down on us,
Mother! Deep night,
And-we need more than ever the
guide of thy light;
For-the darker the night is the
brighter should be,
Thy beautiful shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
5. O blissful and calm was the
wonderful rest,
That-thou gavest thy God in thy
virginal breast;
For-the heaven He left, He found
heaven in thee,
And-He shone in thy shining, sweet
Star of the Sea!
1. Mary Immaculate,
Star of the Morning,
Chosen before the cre-
ation began,
Chosen to bring, in the
light of thy dawning,
Woe to the serpent and
res_-cue to man:
4. Frail is our nature and
strict our probation,
Watchful the foe that would
lure us to wrong;
Succor our souls in the
hour of temptation,
Mary Immaculate,
ten_-der and strong.
2. Here in an orbit of
shadow and sadness,
Veiling thy splendor, thy
course thou hast run;
Now thou art throned in all
glory and gladness,
Crowned by the hand of thy
Sav_-iour and Son.
5. See how the wiles of the
serpent assail us,
See how we waiver and
flinch in the fight:
Let thine immaculate
merit avail us,
Make of our weakness a
proof_ of thy might.
3. Sinners, we worship thy
sinless perfection;
Fallen and weak, for thy
pity we plead;
Grant us the shield of thy
sov’reign protection;
Measure thine aid by the
depth_ of our need.
6. Bend from thy throne at the
note of our crying,
Bend to this earth which thy
footsteps have trod:
Stretch out thine arms to us
living and dying,
Mary Immaculate
Mo_-ther of God.
1. Mother of our Lord and Saviour,
First in beauty as in power!
Glory of the Christian nations!
Ready help in trouble’s hour!
5. Firm as once on holy Sion,
David’s tow-er reared its height;
With a glorious rampart girded,
And with glist’ning armor bright:
2. Though the gates of hell against us,
With profoundest fury rage;
Though the ancient foe assault us,
And his fiercest battle wage;
6. So the’Al-migh-ty Virgin Mother,
Stands in strength for evermore;
From satanic hosts defending,
All who her defence implore.
3. Naught can hurt the pure in spirit,
Who upon thine aid rely;
At thy hand secure of gaining,
Strength and mercy from on high.
7. Through the long unending ages,
Blessed Trinity to Thee!
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Praise and perfect glory be.
4. Safe beneath thy mighty shelter,
Though a thousand hosts combine,
All must fall or flee before us,
Scattered by an arm divine.
Amen.
The Suppressed Marian Apparition (Click/Expand)
Our Lady of Jasna Góra, standing behind the Polish forces on the left, without being seen by them, routs the Soviet invaders on the right, who can see her, sending them fleeing in terror.
In the 1920, Bolshevik invasion of Poland, after national prayers at Jasna Góra, when our Lady appeared to the retreating Russians–but the Poles couldn’t see her because she was behind them–the Bolsheviks failed to defeat the Polish army but the Masonic government of Poland didn’t want our Lady to receive credit.
Without our Lady’s intervention, the Bolsheviks would have swept through Poland to waiting Communist cadres all through Germany, France and the rest of Continental Europe, easily overthrowing those governments, the most complete international rout since the French Revolution. Modern history would have been completely different, to an extent unimaginable to us–without the Miracle on the Vistula, by our Lady of Jasna Góra.
Canticle of Canticles 6:3,9
3. Pulchra es, amica mea; suavis, et decora sicut Jerusalem; terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata.
3 Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army set in array.
9 Quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?
9 Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?
The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 37:22-23Te Redemptoris Dominique nostri
Mary—the Created Wisdom
The Spouse of the Uncreated Wisdom—the Holy Spirit
9 He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her. 10 And he poured her out upon all his works, and upon all flesh according to his gift, and hath given her to them that love him.
1 All wisdom is from the Lord God, and hath been always with him, and is before all time.
2 Who hath numbered the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the world? Who hath measured the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth of the abyss?
3 Who hath searched out the wisdom of God that goeth before all things?
4 Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting.
5 The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom, and her ways are everlasting commandments.
6 To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed, and who hath known her wise counsels?
7 To whom hath the discipline of wisdom been revealed and made manifest? and who hath understood the multiplicity of her steps?
8 There is one most high Creator Almighty, and a powerful king, and greatly to be feared, who sitteth upon his throne, and is the God of dominion.
9 He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her.
10 And he poured her out upon all his works, and upon all flesh according to his gift, and hath given her to them that love him.
11 The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of joy.
12 The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy, and gladness, and length of days.
13 With him that feareth the Lord, it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed.
14 The love of God is honourable wisdom.
15 And they to whom she shall shew herself love her by the sight, and by the knowledge of her great works.
1 Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,
2 And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most High, and shall glorify herself in the sight of his power,
3 And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted, and shall be admired in the holy assembly.
4 And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying:
5 I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn before all creatures:
6 I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth, and as a cloud I covered all the earth:
7 I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of a cloud.
8 I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and have penetrated into the bottom of the deep, and have walked in the waves of the sea,
9 And have stood in all the earth: and in every people,
10 And in every nation I have had the chief rule:
11 And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.
12 Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle,
13 And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect.
14 From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.
15 And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem.
16 And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
17 I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion.
18 I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho:
19 As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted.
20 I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon, and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh:
21 And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm.
22 I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honour and grace.
23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
24 I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
26 Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.
27 For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
28 My memory is unto everlasting generations.
29 They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.
30 He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin.
31 They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
32 All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the most High, and the knowledge of truth.
33 Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and an inheritance to the house of Jacob, and the promises to Israel.
34 He appointed to David his servant to raise up of him a most mighty king, and sitting on the throne of glory for ever.
35 Who filleth up wisdom as the Phison, and as the Tigris in the days of the new fruits.
36 Who maketh understanding to abound as the Euphrates, who multiplieth it as the Jordan in the time of harvest.
37 Who sendeth knowledge as the light, and riseth up as Gehon in the time of the vintage.
38 Who first hath perfect knowledge of her, and a weaker shall not search her out.
39 For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great ocean.
40 I, wisdom, have poured out rivers.
41 I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a channel of a river, and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise.
42 I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.
43 And behold my brook became a great river, and my river came near to a sea:
44 For I make doctrine to shine forth to all as the morning light, and I will declare it afar off.
45 I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord.
46 I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease to instruct their offspring even to the holy age.
47 See ye that I have not laboured myself only, but for all that seek out the truth.
This shortlink
https://www.sing-prayer.org/p/10316
Mary, like a good mother, carries all her children in her Heart. … Our Lady will forever carry all the inhabitants of heaven in her inmost Heart, which becomes the Heaven of Heaven, and a true Paradise of the Elect, in which they find the fulness of delight and joy, due to the inconceivable love for each soul which consumes her maternal Heart … Thus the blessed will forever sing: Sicut laetantium omnium nostrum habitatio est in corde tuo, sancta Dei Genetrix. O holy Mother of God, thy boundless charity has so vastly extended thy maternal Heart that it has become like a great city, or rather an immense heaven, full of ineffable consolations and unspeakable joys for thy beloved children, whose happy dwelling it shall be for all eternity. … Let us draw nigh to this throne of grace and with great confidence Present our requests to the Mother of grace and mercy, Through the intercession of her Heart, most exalted, yet most tender, we shall obtain the graces that we need to become pleasing in the sight of the celestial majesty of God. — https://archive.org/details/the-admirable-heart-of-mary-st.-john-eudes/page/36/mode/1up
Separate and distinct images and meditations for each single prayer in The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. Background music masterworks in separate settings of the ancient hymn Ave Verum Corpus, “Hail True Body” (Pope Innocent VI).
How to Use the Prayers, Music and Images on this page (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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This page is a mockup for a video of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy currently under development. The video’s elements are in three layers.
The images with captions constitute a front layer. The images were originally developed as slides; in some instances there is excessive “white-space” at the bottom of the images. Please scan past the white-space and continue praying.
For the middle layer, praying out-loud the prayers displayed on the images, which you can do while scanning through each image in a series while each section’s background music is playing, is part of a testing process to eventually set up narration tempo (how fast the prayers are read), to be incorporated in the final video.
The back layer is the music audio tracks. Their length will be carefully balanced with the tempo of the narration; some notes may have to be cut or added to coordinate with the prayer sections. (In Windows, the music can be halted by touching the spacebar.)
You can help develop this project by praying the prayers and commenting the experience.
All seven of the background music selections are historic masterworks of the common practice period (1450-1950) based upon the text of the Gregorian Plainchant hymn “Ave Verum Corpus”, Hail True Body.
To audition the core thematic hymn, click the ▶ button to listen to the Gregorian Plainchant monody Ave Verum Corpus, attributed to Pope Innocent VI (1282-1362), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.
[O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie,
O Iesu, fili Mariae.
Miserere mei. Amen]
Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a sweet foretaste
in the trial of death!
[O sweet Jesus, O holy Jesus,
O Jesus, son of Mary,
have mercy on me. Amen.]
Prayers, Music and Images for The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
About the Introductory Prayer Section, Background Music (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the Introductory Prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (the short Introductory declarations of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, The Pater Noster, The Ave Maria, and The Apostles Creed), click the ▶ button to listen to an organ setting of the composition Ave Verum Corpus by the middle Renaissance Burgundian composer Josquin des Prez (1455-1521), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Jesus’ Eyes Downcast at the Moment He Died Thou didst expire, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Thyself out upon us.O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in Thee!
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; on the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
About background music for the First Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the First Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, click the ▶ button to listen to an organ setting of the polyphonic acapella composition Ave Verum Corpus by the high Renaissance English composer William Byrd (1540-1623), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Thy Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.He began to fear, and to be heavy, to grow sorrowful, His soul becoming saddened, unto death. It was less the thought of His sufferings in His bitter Passion, than of the sins of men that afflicted Him, which caused Him this great dread of death.And when He was gone forward a little, He fell flat on the ground; and He prayed, that if it might be, the hour might pass from Him. And He said: Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou will.And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. “God put Jesus forward as a propitiation for forgiveness of sins by His blood, by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Romans 3; Hebrews 9) Jesus was tormented in all the members and senses of His body, and was still more bitterly afflicted in all the powers of His soul; so that the internal pains which He endured infinitely surpassed His external sufferings.From the moment of His Incarnation, He foresaw all the sufferings that He would undergo. (In the Visitation, St. John the Baptist kneels within the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, adoring the Lord Jesus enthroned within the womb of His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.) Jesus even from the first instant of His life continually suffered all the torments of His Passion; He had before His eyes all the horrid scene of torments and insults which He was to receive from men, the scourges, the thorns, the cross, the outrages of His Passion, the desolate death that awaited Him. “My sorrow is continually before Me.” —Psalm 37:18Him, who knew no sin, He hath made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in Him. … And among the wicked he was reputed. He came to die for love of us, that we might come to love Him. How is it possible for us to enter upon the meditation of the Passion of Jesus Christ without being wounded, as by so many darts of love, by those sufferings and agonies which so greatly afflicted the body and soul of our loving Lord, and without being sweetly constrained to love Him who loved us so much?And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. I die of love! … Come near and sustain Me in My mystic agony … Will you this evening be angels of consolation to me for one hour? – Fr. Mateo, January Holy HourAnd being in an agony, He prayed the longer. His greatest sorrow was that He saw how His Passion and death, offered with supreme love, would be of no avail to many souls. His infinitely meritorious Sacrifice, the power to save men from all their sins, would be received with indifference and ingratitude. “Souls do not want to accept My mercy.”And he came to His disciples, and found them asleep; and He said to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with me?And Jesus said to him: Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?Whom are you seeking? They answered Him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them: I AM (Ἐγώ εἰμι – Ego Eimi – I, I AM). As soon therefore as He had said to them: I Am, they went backward, and fell to the ground. — John 18:5-6 Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is His name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. (YHWH) He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you. And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: This is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations. – Exodus 3: 13-15
About background music for the Second Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the Second Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, click the ▶ button to listen to an organ setting of a composition of Ave Verum Corpus by the early French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Thy Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.Then the band and the tribune, and the servants of the Jews, took Jesus, and bound Him, and they led Him away. Greater love than this no man has, that He lay down His life for His friends. (John 15: 13) But He laid down His life for us, when we were not His friends, but enemies and rebels against Him. Peter said: I do not know Him. And immediately, as he was yet speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turning looked on Peter. Peter’s denial of Jesus, even swearing that he never knew Him, added to His sufferings. Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him: Feed My lambs. He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? He saith to Him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him: Feed My lambs. He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved, because He had said to him the third time: Lovest thou Me? And he said to Him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love Thee. He said to him: Feed My sheep.And they brought Jesus to the high priest; and all the priests and the scribes and the ancients assembled together. The ignominies and cruelties which our Lord suffered on that night were so manifold that they shall not all be known till the day of judgment.Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the blessed God? And Jesus said to him: I am. And you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming with the clouds of heaven.You say that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, hears My voice.Because Jesus did not wish to be delivered from death, and because wicked Herod was not worthy of His answers, He was silent, and answered him not. He was offered because it was His own will, and He opened not His mouth: He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, and He shall not open His mouth.I find no cause in this man, in those things wherein you accuse Him, nor Herod neither. Nothing worthy of death is done to Him. I will chastise Him therefore, and release Him. He was beaten, the chastisement inflicted on slaves only, to take on Himself the punishment due to us, of the slaves of sin.The plowers plowed upon My back; they made long their furrows. – Psalm 129:3I have given my body to the strikers, and My cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away My face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon Me. – Isaiah 50:6But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5
About background music for the Third Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the Third Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, click the ▶ button to listen to an organ setting of a composition of Ave Verum Corpus by the late Renaissance and early Baroque English composer Fr. Peter Philips (1560-1628), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Thy Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto Him the whole band.They stripped Him, and put a scarlet cloak about Him; and platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His hand.They struck His head with the reed: and they spit on Him. And they said: Hail, King of the Jews; and they gave Him blows.He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. – Isaiah 53:3Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. – Isaiah 53:4This torture, the most painful and long-lasting of all, compressed His eyes together. Everywhere the thorns pierced into His head, the most sensitive part, every time they were touched, the anguish was renewed afresh. Our sins, our evil thoughts, were the wicked thorns which afflicted His sacred head.Behold, O God our protector: and look on the face of Thy Christ. — Psalm 83:10Jesus therefore came forth, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he saith to them: Behold the Man. But they cried out: Away with Him; away with Him; crucify Him!For what crime was He sentenced to death? That of loving us, to rescue us from Satan’s clutches, to love us into eternal life.Then therefore he delivered Him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him forth.
About background music for the Fourth Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the Fourth Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, click the ▶ button to listen to a setting of a composition of Ave Verum Corpus as adapted from a fragment of figured bass, traditionally called an Adagio, attributed to the 18th-century Venetian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), by the twentieth century Italian musicologist and composer Remo Giazotto (1910-1998), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Thy Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.Consider how Jesus, in making this journey with the Cross on His shoulders, thought of us, and offered for us, to His Father, the death He was about to undergo.Consider this first fall of Jesus under His Cross. His flesh was torn by the scourges, His Head crowned with thorns, and He had lost a great quantity of blood. He was so weakened that He could scarcely walk; and yet He had to carry this great load upon His shoulders. The soldiers struck Him rudely, and thus He fell several times in His journey. In the midst of condemned criminals there moves forward to death the King of heaven, the only-begotten Son of God, laden with His cross, to be executed, together with the malefactors, upon a gibbet of infamy. Consider how the Jews, seeing that at each step Jesus was on the point of expiring, and fearing He would die on the way, when they wished Him to die the ignominious death of the Cross, constrained Simon the Cyrenean to carry the Cross behind our Lord.Jesus and Mary looked at each other, and their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other tenderly.Consider the second fall of Jesus under the Cross—a fall which renews the pain of all the wounds of the Head and members of our afflicted Lord.But Jesus said to them, “Weep not for Me, but for yourselves and for your children.”Jesus’ face is wiped with the veil of Veronica.Consider the third fall of Jesus Christ. His weakness was extreme, and the cruelty of His executioners excessive, who tried to hasten His steps when He had scarcely strength to move.Consider the violence with which the executioners stripped Jesus. His inner garments adhered to His torn flesh, and they dragged them off so roughly that the skin came with them.They have pierced My hands and feet. They have numbered all My bones. I lay down My life; no one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
About background music for the Fifth Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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To audition background music for the Fifth Decade of prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, click the ▶ button to listen to a polyphonic organ setting, implicitly in a minor mode, of the Gregorian Plainchant Ave Verum Corpus, the original attributed to Pope Innocent VI (1282-1362), or play the music in a New Window ⧉
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Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Thy Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself. — John 12:32 O Son, Divine Lord, made man, draw me entirely to Thyself, detach me from earth, crucify me with Thyself that I may become, in union with Thee, a sacrifice of praise for the glory of Thy Father.They parted My garments amongst them; and upon My vesture they cast lots. – Psalm 21:19
Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise. – Luke 23:39-43Woman, behold thy son. … Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. – John 19:26-27 And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. – Revelation 12:17My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Jesus was abandoned in His passion in order that we might not remain abandoned in the sins which we have committed.
0607
For the sake of His sorrowful passion,
have mercy on us, and on the whole world.
I THIRST. Thirst that did not proceeded from dryness, but which sprang from the ardor of His love for us, His desire to suffer for us, showing us His love, and the immense desire that He had of being loved by us, by the many sufferings that He endured for us.Jesus therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated.And Jesus crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. And saying this, He gave up the ghost.When they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water.
About background music for the Ending Prayers of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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Oh, how exceedingly tender, loving, and constraining was that declaration of our Blessed Redeemer concerning His coming into the world, when He said that He had come to kindle in souls the fire of divine love, and that His only desire was that this holy flame should be enkindled in the hearts of men: “I am come to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I but that it should be kindled?” —Luke 12:49Even on the cross He has opened in His wounds so many fountains of grace, that to receive them it is sufficient to ask for them in faith. And, not satisfied with this, He has given us His whole self in the Most Holy Sacrament.Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Thy mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Thy holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven, on earth, and under the earth by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
How the Several Main Traditional Catholic Groups, the SSPX, the FSSP and ICKSP, regard the Orthodoxy of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
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How do the several main Traditional Catholic groups, the SSPX, the FSSP and ICKSP regard the orthodoxy of The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy?
There is variation among Traditional Catholic groups, and it hinges on both their general approach to private revelation and their attitude toward the post–Vatican II liturgical landscape.
1. SSPX (Society of St. Pius X)
Official stance: The SSPX has historically been critical of the Divine Mercy devotion and chaplet. Their critique is not just about liturgical novelty, but also about the theological underpinnings of St. Faustina Kowalska’s diary.
Concerns include:
Ambiguous language about God’s mercy (they argue it risks minimizing God’s justice).
The association with John Paul II, who canonized Faustina and promoted the devotion, which the SSPX often interprets in the broader context of post-conciliar innovations.
The earlier 1959 prohibition (the Holy Office initially forbade public propagation of the devotion due to translation and theological concerns; this ban was lifted in 1978). The SSPX tends to point back to the fact that serious doubts once existed at the Vatican level.
Summary: The SSPX does not promote the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and often warns the faithful against it, preferring traditional devotions such as the Rosary, Sacred Heart, and traditional Stations of the Cross.
2. FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter)
Official stance: The FSSP, being in full canonical union with Rome and generally deferential to papal guidance, accepts the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as orthodox and legitimate.
Practice: Many FSSP parishes may not emphasize it as much as the Rosary or traditional devotions, but they do not oppose it. Individual priests sometimes lead Divine Mercy devotions, especially around Divine Mercy Sunday.
Summary: Seen as an approved, orthodox devotion, but not at the center of their apostolate.
3. ICKSP (Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest)
Official stance: Like the FSSP, the ICKSP is fully regularized under Rome and does not oppose the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
Practice: Their spirituality is heavily oriented to the Sacred Heart, Christ the King, and liturgical solemnity, so the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is not a major emphasis. However, it is not excluded or regarded as heterodox.
Summary: Accepted as orthodox, but not as central as older, “classic” devotions.
Overall picture
SSPX: Skeptical, critical, discourages it.
FSSP & ICKSP: Accept its orthodoxy, do not oppose it, but usually emphasize older traditional devotions.
Jesus told St. Faustina that He would give three tries, to get a departed soul to accept His mercy. (We can expect that the process of finally departing this life may take as long as 3 days.)
1) Soul of my Saviour, sanctify my breast,
Body of Christ, be Thou my saving guest,
Blood of my Saviour, bathe me in Thy tide,
Wash me with water flowing from Thy side.
3) Guard & defend me from the foe malign,
In death’s dread moments make me only Thine;
Call me & bid me come to Thee on high,
Where I may praise Thee with Thy saints for aye.
2) Strength & protection may Thy Passion be,
O blessed Jesus, hear and answer me;
Deep in Thy wounds, Lord, hide and shelter me,
So shall I never, never part from Thee.
Amen.
Sing `Anima Christi` 𝄞 (Click/Expand or Bypass)
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Anima Christi (“Soul of My Savior”)
Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Corpus Christi, salva me. Body of Christ, save me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passio Christi, conforta me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O bone Jesu, exaudi me. O good Jesus, hear me.
Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Within Thy wounds hide me.
Ne permittas me separari a te. Suffer me never to be separated from Thee.
Ab hoste maligno defende me. From the malignant enemy defend me.
In hora mortis meae voca me. In the hour of my death call me.
Et iube me venire ad te. And bid me come unto Thee.
Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te. That with Thy Saints I may praise Thee.
The name of good works is given to such voluntary actions on the part of man as are in conformity with the will of God, are performed for the love of God, and consequently will be rewarded by God. No action, however excellent, is to be called a good work unless it is voluntary. The compulsory fast of a criminal in prison is not a good work; nor in fact is any action which is not in accordance with the will of God. To spend one’s time in reciting long prayers, instead of accomplishing the duties of one’s station, is not a good work, but a sin. Nor do works which fail in any one particular to correspond to the will of God deserve to be called good works, or to receive a reward. Those actions again, which are not performed for the love of God are not good works. God requires a pure motive on our part. For instance, to give an alms to an importunate beggar merely to get rid of him is not wrong, but it is not a perfect good work. It is an imperfect or natural good work, because it is done from natural motives. But an action performed for God’s sake, because it is the will of God, for love of Christ, in view of an eternal reward or for fear of everlasting punishment, is a perfect, or supernatural good work, and will bear fruit, because it is done in union with Christ (as the branch bears fruit that abides in the vine, John 15:4), and participates in His merits. A plain woolen cloth has a certain worth, but if it be dyed a rich purple color, its value is greatly enhanced. So the good works we perform are of little worth unless they are done for God’s sake. Then they are crimsoned with the blood of Christ, precious in God’s sight, and deserving of a celestial recompense. 
