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Brenda wrote: |
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Hello,
I know the saints forbade building altars to the saints
and making offerings to them, though
I can't specifically remember which saints. Recently, I have heard about people creating altars to Mary.
- Is
erecting an altar to Mary or any other saint allowed in the
Church?
Similarly, in many countries, such as Vietnam, many Catholics
leave food offerings for the dead.
I thought I read that one of the popes declared
our indulgences for the Faithful Departed (or the Dead), were to be offered by means of prayer.
- What are the Eastern rite's position on indulgences, consecration
to Mary, and personal prayer?
I really love some of the Eastern
Catholic spirituality. If there was an Eastern-Rite Church
in my town, I would probably join, though I have not converted to Catholicism yet.
Sorry, I'm over my 5-question limit, but I just have one more:
- What did the Blessed Mother mean by asking to make reparation to her Immaculate
Heart at Fatima?
I don't encourage nor practice
any disrespect toward the Virgin Mary. I admit — I'm not a Marian expert,
but I don't defame her either.
- Does this mean she's up there mad
at all of us?
- Do we have to make reparation to all the saints?
Help.
With Advent just around the corner, I'd highly
recommend having an Advent wreath in one's home. It's a beautiful
reminder of the real reason for the season. Each candle has
a certain meaning. It's easy and relatively inexpensive to
make one.
A Blessed Advent,
Brenda
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| { Can you address topics on altars, indulgences, Eastern rite views, and making reparation to Mary? } |
John replied:
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Hi Brenda,
Let's deal with altars first. An altar is a place of sacrifice;
it is literally where Heaven and earth meet. It is the place where
the Son offers Himself to the Father, in the Spirit, through the
ministry of the priest who stands in the place of the Son.
It's really almost improper to say an altar is built to a saint. It is better to say the altar is dedicated in honor of a Saint
or Mary, but we get lazy and we wind up saying it's the altar to Saint So and So.
Mary is not up there mad at anybody. She loves us with the love of
a mother and intercedes for us. Some of us are more Marian than others.
I'm a Charismatic Catholic and my spiritual journey focuses on the
Holy Spirit who is Mary's Spouse, but it all points through Christ
to the Father.
You asked if we have to make reparations to the saints for our sins.
The answer is No!
The concept of reparations is often misunderstood.
The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of our Lord already paid the price
in full.
However when we sin, we not only sin against God, we sin against
ourselves. We damage our souls. So repentance and absolution take
care of the debt we owe for our sins. What is left is the damage we've
done to our souls.
Purgatory is, not so much
a place of punishment, as it is a place of suffering.
I like to call it a
Holy Ghost hospital where we experience
a healing and growing pain. It is where the Love of God which
is a cleansing fire burns away our selfish desires and completely
transforms us into the image and likeness of Jesus. I choose not
to use the word reparation, especially around Protestants because,
in their thinking, it diminishes the work of Calvary and even blasphemies
the blood of Christ. Sure I know what it means, and I understand
the word is part of a juridical model or explanation of Purgatory
developed in the Middle Ages, but it is too often misunderstood by
Catholics and Protestant alike.
Since you are interested in the Eastern Rite Church, you might be
interested to know they don't have these problems. You see in the
East, they've asked different questions, so their expression of the
same Catholic faith is different than ours. They simply accept paradox as a
mystery and don't try to impose philosophical definitions on everything.
Instead, they enter into the mystery by meditating on it.
That doesn't mean it's contradictory to the Western Church.
Quite
the opposite, it's complementary. In the West or Roman Rite, we often over emphasize
rational thinking. In the East, they might avoid it too much.
John DiMascio
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Mike replied:
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Hi Brenda,
I just wanted to add to what John has said.
You said:
- What did the Blessed Mother mean by reparation to her Immaculate
Heart at Fatima?
I don't encourage nor practice
any disrespect toward the Virgin Mary. I admit — I'm not a Marian expert,
but I don't defame her either.
- Does this mean she's up there mad
at all of us?
- Do we have to make reparation to all the saints?
Help.
I tend to have a little more of a Marian spirituality
in that I strive to say the Rosary (how to, history) daily, and wear
the Brown Scapular. I also regularly attend First Friday
and First Saturday devotions. These are optional monthly
devotions Catholics practice in order to make reparation
to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and to make reparation
to offenses against the Blessed Virgin Mary.
- Through First Friday devotions, the Church strives to
make reparation for blasphemes and attacks made by
mankind against Our Blessed Lord Jesus and His Sacred
Heart.
- Similarly, First Saturday practices are aimed
at making reparation to attacks made against Jesus' mother,
Mary.
A more elaborate definition of these devotions is below.
Side note: No Christian can deny the importance of Mary
in salvation. Why? Because the Blessed Virgin Mary gave
(God the Father) the one thing He didn't have and by nature
couldn't have:
An incarnate Son, Jesus!
Only Mary by her human nature and free will could give
(God, the Father) this.
Mary is not up there mad at any of us. Mary is in Heaven
praying for all men and loving all men continually, no
matter where they are on their faith journey.
Mary's participation in the
salvation of mankind is so key, to blaspheme the Mother
of mankind's salvation — Jesus, in any way, is terrible!
First Friday Devotion to Our Lord:
First Friday is a devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart
in which a person receives
Holy Communion for nine consecutive
first Fridays of each month. According to a promise made
to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a person following this
observance will have the grace of a final repentance
before death.
From the writings of St. Margaret Mary:
On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these
words to His unworthy slave,
if I mistake not:
| I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that
its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive
Holy Communion on nine First Fridays of consecutive
months the grace of final repentance; they will not
die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured
refuge at the last moment. |
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With regard to this promise it may be remarked:
- that Our Lord required Communion to be received
on a particular day chosen by Him;
- that the nine Fridays must be consecutive;
- that they must be made in honor of His Sacred Heart,
which means that those who make the nine Fridays must
practice the devotion and must have a great love for
our Lord;
- that our Lord does not say that
those who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed from
any of their obligations or from exercising the vigilance
necessary to lead a good life and overcome temptation; rather He implicitly promises abundant graces to those
who make the nine Fridays to help them to carry out
these obligations and persevere to the end;
- that perseverance in receiving Holy Communion for
nine consecutive First Fridays helps the faithful to
acquire the habit of frequent Communion, which Our
Lord eagerly desires; and
- that the practice of the nine Fridays is very pleasing
to Our Lord since He promises such great reward, and
that all Catholics should endeavor to make the nine
Fridays.
The Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque to those who honor Our Blessed
Lord's Sacred Heart are:
- I will give them all the graces necessary in
their state of life.
- I will establish peace in their homes.
- I will comfort them in their afflictions.
- I will be their secure refuge during life, and
above all in death.
- I will bestow a large blessing upon all their
undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and
the infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
- Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
- I will bless every place where a picture of My
Heart shall be set up and honored.
- I will give to priests the gift of touching the
most hardened hearts.
- Those who shall promote this devotion shall have
their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted
out.
- I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart
that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who
communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive
months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not
die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments;
My Divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this
last moment.
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First Saturday Devotion to Our Lady:
This is a devotion of reparation to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary; done to honor Our Lady's sorrows as suggested
by Our Lord in an apparition to Sister Lucia, a visionary
from Fatima in 1925, and as requested by Our Lady.
Background:
The First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary was first mentioned by Our Lady of Fatima on
July 13, 1917. After showing the three children a vision
of Hell she said:
| "You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners
go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world
devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you
is done, many souls will be saved and there will be
peace. I shall come to ask for the Communion of
reparation on the first Saturdays." |
Eight years later, on December 10, 1925, Mary and the
Child, Jesus appeared to Lucia, already a postulant at
that time in the Dorothean house at Pontevedra, Spain,
and the only surviving Fatima visionary. Our Lady rested
her hand on Lucia's shoulder, revealing a heart encircled
by thorns.
The Child, Jesus said:
| Have compassion on the heart of your most holy
Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men
pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make
an act of reparation. |
Our Lady's conditions for this devotion:
Our Lady spoke next, saying:
Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with
thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment
by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try
to console me and say that I promise to assist at the
hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation,
all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive
months:
- shall confess, [go to Confession]
- receive Holy Communion,
- recite five decades of the
Rosary, and
- keep me company for fifteen
minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the
Rosary,
with the intention of making reparation to me.
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Why Five Saturdays?
Christians have always honored the Blessed Virgin on
Saturday because of her constant faith in Jesus on that
first Holy Saturday before the Resurrection.
Five first Saturdays of reparation were requested to
atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate
Heart of Mary:
- by attacks upon Mary's Immaculate
Conception
- by attacks against her Perpetual
Virginity
- by attacks upon her Divine Maternity
and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all
mankind
- for those who try to publicly
implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt
and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother
- for those who insult her directly
in sacred images.
Sister Lucia explaining this devotion in a November 1st, 1927 letter to Dona Maria de Miranda, her
godmother when she wrote:
"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory
devotion of the five Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire
you to practice it, because it is requested by Our
dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifested a desire
that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you
would be fortunate, dear godmother, not only to know
it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing
it, but also to make it known and embraced by many
other persons.
It consists in this: During five months on the
first Saturday, to receive Jesus in Communion, recite
a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes
while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, and
make a Confession.
The Confession can be made a few
days earlier, and if in this previous Confession you
have forgotten the (required) intention, the following
intention can be offered, provided that on the first
Saturday one receives Holy Communion in a state of
grace, with the intention of repairing for offenses
against the Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her
Immaculate Heart.
It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are
fortunate to be able to give Our dear Heavenly Mother
this proof of love, for we know that She desires it
to be offered to Her. As for myself, I avow that I
am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives.
- Isn't
it true that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely
to Jesus and Mary and to love Them and Them alone,
without reserve?
We see this so clearly in the lives
of the saints. They were happy because they loved,
and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as
they did, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least
important — because if we do not enjoy Him here below,
we will enjoy Him up above — but to give Jesus and
Mary the consolation for being loved — and that in
exchange for this love, they might be able to save many
souls." |
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I hope this answers your questions; if not, just follow-up.
Mike
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