Author: Emmanuel L. Di Rossetti

Pentecost happiness

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One of the joys of the octave of Pentecost lies in the recitation of the Veni, Sancte Spiritus , after the recitation of the Victimae Paschali during Easter week, the liturgy never ceases to amaze us.

Come, Holy Spirit,

And send from the sky

A ray of your light.

Come, father of the poor,

Come, giver of gifts,

Come, light of hearts.

Very good comforter,

Sweet host of the soul,

Sweet refreshment.

Rest in work,

Relief in the heat,

Consolation in tears.

O blessed light,

Fill to the most intimate

The hearts of your faithful.

Without your divine help,

There is nothing in man,

It is nothing innocent.

Wash away what is soiled,


Water what is arid,

Heal what is hurt.

Soften what is stiff,

Warm what is cold,

Straighten out what is wrong.

Give to your followers

who trust in you,

The Seven Sacred Gifts.

Give the merit of virtue,

Give the final salute,

Give eternal joy.

So be it. Alleluia.

Prayer to the Souls in Purgatory of Father André Haussaire

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O Jesus, to Your Heart I entrust (whom I desire: for example “victims of the virus”)

Look at (the/them) then do what Your Heart tells You.

Let Your Heart Work!

I rely on Him.

I trust Him.

I surrender myself to Him!

O Jesus, by Your most loving Heart, I beg You to inflame with the zeal of Your Love and Your Glory all the priests of the world, all the missionaries, all those who are responsible for announcing Your divine Word, so that with holy zeal they snatch souls from Satan and lead them to the asylum of Your Heart where they can glorify You unceasingly!

Eternal Father, who, out of love for souls, delivered Your only Son to death, – by His Blood, by His merits and by His Heart, have mercy on the whole world and forgive all the sins that are committed.

Receive the humble reparation offered to You by Your chosen souls.

Unite them to the merits of Your divine Son, so that all their acts may be of great efficacy.

O, Eternal Father, have mercy on souls and do not forget that the time of Justice has not yet arrived, but that of Mercy!

Receive, O Most Holy Father, the sufferings and merits of all the souls who, united to the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ, offer themselves to You, with Him and through Him, so that You may forgive the world.

O God of mercy and love, be the strength of the weak, the light of the blind and the object of the love of souls!

O my Savior who art also my God, let my heart be a flame of pure love for You!

(1952)

Prayer in times of epidemic

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(from the Roman Ritual, Titulus IX, Caput X)

V. Lord, do not treat us according to our sins.

A. And do not punish us according to our iniquities.

V. Help us, O God our Saviour.

A. And for the glory of your name, Lord, deliver us.

V. Lord, remember not our ancient iniquities.

A. May your mercies warn us without delay, because we are reduced to the last misery.

V. Pray for us, Saint Sebastian.

A. So that we can obtain the promises of Jesus Christ.

V. Lord, hear my prayer.

A. And let my cry rise to you.

V. The Lord be with you.

A. And with your mind.

Hear us, O God our Saviour, and through the intercession of the blessed and glorious Mary Mother of God ever virgin and of the blessed Sebastian your martyr and of all the saints, deliver your people from the terrors of your indignation and reassure them by the gifts of your mercy…. 

Be propitious Lord to our supplications and remedy the languor of our bodies and our souls, so that delivered from these evils, we may always be in joy by an effect of your blessing...

We beg you, Lord, to grant us the effect of our humble prayer and to ward off pestilence and mortality with kindness, so that the hearts of men will understand and feel that such scourges proceed from your indignation and cease by your mercy. By Christ Our Lord.  

Spiritual Communion (continued)

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      In the Middle Ages, when the faithful used to take communion only at Easter time, devout people, usually women, expressed their desire to do so more frequently. 

      This is how the custom of spiritual communion appeared. “Towards the end of the twelfth century, the most popular form of spiritual communion was to express a prayer and requests during the elevation which follows the consecration. […] It is considered that the eulogy or holy bread was a quite acceptable replacement for sacramental communion […].  

According to some authors, the blessing of people and the kiss of peace could also replace communion. […] Spiritual communion was recommended to those who were too ill to receive the consecrated species. […] Theologians reinforced this practice by teaching that, through spiritual communion, we received as many graces necessary for our salvation as through sacramental communion” (G. Macy in Eucharistia. Encyclopédie de l’Echaristie , under the direction of M. Brouard, Paris, 2002, p. 182).

Even if, today, the practice of daily confession is common, the Church nevertheless invites the faithful to recite spiritual communions often throughout the day to ignite themselves in love of God, "so as to unite to the Redeemer with lively faith, a spirit respectfully humble and confident in his will, with the most ardent love” (Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei , November 20, 1947). Archbishop Le Tourneau

Here are two forms of spiritual communion:

“I would like, Lord, to receive you with purity, humility and devotion

with which your Most Holy Mother received you; 

with the spirit and fervor of the saints. »

“My Jesus, I believe that you are present here in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things and I ardently desire to receive you.  

But since, at this moment, I cannot do it sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. 

As if you were already present there, I adore you and I unite myself entirely to you; do not allow me ever to separate from you.  

Jesus, my good, my sweet love, inflame my heart with love, so that it always burns with love for you. 

Cherubim, Seraphim who adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, night and day, pray for us and give us the holy blessing of Jesus and Mary.

Prayer of Saint Alfonso de Liguori

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My god, I believe that you are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and my soul longs for you, since I cannot now receive you in the Blessed Sacrament. Come at least in a spiritual way into my heart. I embrace you as if you were in me and I unite myself entirely to vous. O do not let me ever have the misfortune to separate myself from you. O Jesus, my sovereign good and my sweet love, wound and inflame my heart so that it always burns with your love.

Spiritual communion according to Saint Alfonso de Liguori

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My god, I believe that you are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and my soul longs for you.

Since I cannot now receive you in the Blessed Sacrament, come at least in a spiritual way into my heart. I embrace you as if you were inside me and I unite myself entirely to you.

Oh !

don't let me ever have the misfortune to separate myself from you. O Jesus! my sovereign good and my sweet love, wound and inflame my heart so that it always burns with your love.

François Lagarde, Ernst Jünger's photographer

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François Lagarde installing one of his photos at the European House of Photography

In the middle of a dragging Saturday morning, the telephone rang, an already well-known voice was heard speaking impeccable French with a delicious Germanic accent: "Mon lieutenant, do you think he's possible to invite a friend, François Lagarde, to the festivities? I replied that it was no problem and my interlocutor hung up the phone in a flash as he was used to. I had met Ernst Jünger for the first time three weeks before. He called me for some time to come and with a certain deference, my lieutenant. I had realized a dream when I met him in Wilflingen, he had received me with a kindness that again had almost upset me and he had assured me of his presence for the show that we were preparing at the rear base for the return of the troops from Operation Daguet in Iraq in Nîmes. But I did not know François Lagarde, of whom the German writer spoke to me, and I had felt from the sound of his voice that it was a wish that was close to his heart. He told me that he lived in Montpellier and that he would come by his own means… Shortly after, I received another call, this time from François Lagarde who came on the phone and told me he was a photographer.

Ernst Jünger in uniform

Francois Lagarde had a soft voice and I never heard him raise it. At all times, in all circumstances, he remained master of himself and it did not seem like an effort. He had that soft, questioning voice whose questioning served as much to discover as to confirm. François had a real gentleness, which was not feigned, but he was also inhabited by a certain ferocity that I attributed to the double emancipation he was convinced he had achieved: emancipation from his environment and emancipation from all forms of limits like the people who turned twenty in 1968. François was Protestant to the very core of himself. He refused this condition and therefore boasted of having gotten rid of it, of no longer carrying the weight of his two pastor parents, but he continued to struggle, and in his heart of hearts, I always thought he was aware, even if he acted like someone who had won the bet, that the fight would still be with him. So he got rid of his Protestantism by dressing it up with a Fellini side, in search of the slightest bit of pure life, of Dionysian life, of an orgy of life… It was his agony. He never shied away from it. There is something terrible in seeing a man retain only gray, dull colors from childhood… No childish joy comes to counterbalance this feeling. If everything is a question of perspective in life, joy should always be the perspective of childhood, because the joy felt fully in a pure soul will always seem stronger than the vagaries of adult life. Time often accustoms us to our own hypocrisy. And we take that habit for a win. François Lagarde exalted an unfailing complexity. It was hard not to like him. He was impulsive, always curious and adorned with a genuinely Catholic joy. He wouldn't have liked me to give him a Catholic quality, but he would have been flattered, without admitting it of course.

Continue reading “François Lagarde, photographer of Ernst Jünger” →

Prayer to the Virgin Mary by Max Jacob

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Praise to this little country girl,

Who deserved to be the mother of God!

It seems to me that she was born in Brittany

And that she lived there before my eyes….

She is the only one.

She is greeted by Gabriel;

She deserves it :

That's why God is on her.

He is in her, he is around her;

He is her husband, her son, her father;

She is his nurse and his mother;

She is his queen, he is her king.

Unique Virgin, watch over me. 

Be yourself

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Being yourself never fades into habit. Identity is a search and an affirmation, a enantiodromos , like a state of siege that fears no enemy. Who am I? Where am I going? Constantly agree to question oneself and explore the mystery of life, but caparisoned by what one knows about oneself and exposed to the negotiation of oneself in the world, that is to say, if it there are some certainties, they free themselves from doubts... But what there cannot be is nothing.

The Revolutionary and Forgiveness

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The revolutionary has no appetite for forgiveness, because he hates the gift which seems suspicious to him and the other with which he could have sealed the future.

For the revolutionary, moved by envy, the only form of forgiveness that is specific to him passes through the humiliation or the death of his opponent in order to celebrate his deserved victory over a rich person.