Angels--Their Supernatural Knowledge

[Weedy]

Angels--Their Supernatural Knowledge

The Angels received at the beginning a knowledge of the Incarnation of
the Divine Word. God revealed it to them when He required them to
adore the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ. But they knew not all the
circumstances that would accompany it. They did not know that He was
to lead on earth a life of sorrow and to die a death of shame. These
were revealed gradually and in part. We must rest content, as the Holy
Angels do, to know just as much as God pleases and nothing more.

The Holy Angels have also an infused knowledge of human affairs. God
reveals to them all that is necessary for the exercise of their
guardianship of us, the dangers that we shall be exposed to, the
temptations that will beset us, sometimes the secrets of our hearts.
We should pray God that our Guardian Angels may know us very
thoroughly, that so they may keep us in perfect safety.

The Angels understand far better than we do all the mysteries of
grace. Why is this? It is because of their purity of heart. It is this
that makes them full of light, and in virtue of this light they see
far into the depths of the ways and works of God and His dealings with
His creatures. We often are so dulled by earthly things and earthly
passions that we seem to lose all appreciation of things Divine. It is
the clean of heart to whom is granted the privilege of understanding
the hidden things of God.
by the Rev. R.F. Clarke, S.J.

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June 27th - Our Lady of Perpetual Help

(1863)
The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help measures around 50 centimeters
(25 inches) high. It is in the Byzantine style, painted on wood with a
gold leaf background. The Virgin is there with Her divine Child; each
of them has a golden halo. Two Angels, one on the right and the other
on the left, present the instruments of the Passion to the Child Jesus
who is frightened, whereas the Blessed Virgin looks at the pathetic
scene with calm, resigned sorrow.

The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help had long been venerated on the
Isle of Crete. The inhabitants of that island, fleeing a Turkish
invasion, took it with them to Rome. By the invocation of Mary under
the title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the ship transporting Her
holy image was saved from a terrible storm.

On March 27, 1499, the portrait of the Virgin of Perpetual Help was
carried in triumph through the streets of Rome. Preceded by the clergy
and followed by the people, it was placed over the main altar of St.
Matthew’s church, near St. Mary Major. Thanks to the care of the
Augustinian friars, the holy image became the object of a very popular
devotion which God rewarded for several centuries with many miracles.

During the disturbances of the French Revolution (1789-1793), the
French troops occupying Rome destroyed St. Matthew’s church. One of
the friars serving in that sanctuary had the time to secretly remove
the miraculous Madonna. He hid it so well that for sixty years, no one
knew what had become of the famous painting.

God permitted a concourse of providential circumstances which led to
rediscovery of the venerated image. In 1865, in order to return the
holy picture to the same spot it had been prayed to before, Pius IX
gave orders to have it taken to the Esquiline Hill, in St. Alphonsus
Liguori’s church, built on the site of old St. Matthew’s. On April 26,
1866, the Redemptorists solemnly enthroned Our Lady of Perpetual Help
in their chapel.

From that time on, thanks to the zeal of the sons of Saint Alphonsus
and the countless miracles obtained in their pious sanctuary, devotion
to Our Lady of Perpetual Help has had an extraordinary development. To
acknowledge and perpetuate the remembrances of these precious favors,
the Vatican Chapter crowned the holy image in great pomp on June 23,
1867.

In 1876, Pope Pius IX erected an Archconfraternity in St. Alphonsus’
church under the title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Today the
Blessed Virgin is invoked by this name throughout the Western Church.

Source: Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année,
Mame: Tours, 1950, pp. 463-464 – Brothers of Christian Schools, 1932
ed., p. 483.


Saint Quote:
To those who wish to stand in God's grace, neither the guardianship of
saints nor the defenses of angels are wanting.
--Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Bible Quote:
Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains
alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. (John 12:24-25)


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Prayer of Mother Maria-Pierina

O Blessed Face of my kind Savior, by the tender love and
piercing sorrow of Our Lady as she beheld you in your cruel
Passion, grant us to share in this intense sorrow and love so
as to fulfill the holy will of God to the utmost of our ability.
Amen.