The Feast Of The Sacred Heart

Nineteen days after Pentecost the Church gives us another feast to celebrate the love that God has for us and shows us how to return that love.
Although down through the centuries people have  had a devotion to the Sacred heart  it was not until the 16oo's that it truly became established.

In 1647 a baby girl was  born to parents, Claude and Philiberte Alaoque. Given the name Margaret Mary, she was a quiet and reserved child who preferred her own company, where she would sit silently and pray especially before the Blessed Sacrament. After her first Holy Communion Margaret
 Mary would begin to practice quite severe self mortification until paralysis confined her to her bed for four years. During this time she made a vow to the Blessed Virgin Mary to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to health. However, after a time misfortune befell her family, her Father died and an unjust relative plunged the family into deep poverty. During this time Margaret sought  consolation in the Eucharist. Christ began to appear to her and soothe her.

It was a number of years until everything was restored to the family, but finally her Mother was able to re-establish herself By the age of seventeen Margaret Mary decided that she didn't need to fulfil her childish promises but she could serve The Lord while at home by doing penance and works of mercy.

Her self mortification was often quite extreme and she would draw blood in her rough punishment of herself. On one hand you had this very pious tradition but on the other hand she began to partake in the "pleasures" of the world. One night upon returning from an evenings dancing she had a vision of Christ suffering the consequences of his scourging. Christ reproached her for her lack of fidelity  to him after he had given her so many proofs of his love for her. This brought Margaret Mary up short and she very quickly changed paths again and entered the Visitation Sisters at Paray, where she was throughly tested to make sure her vocation was true. In November 1672 she pronounced her final vows.

While at the convent Margaret Mary was inspired by Christ to establish a Holy Hour on the first Friday of each month, to share in the sadness he felt when he was abandoned by all his apostles in his agony. This has become a very established devotion in the church with many participating each month. Out of this revelation came some very specific "promises" from Our Lord for those who
would participate in this devotion:

 1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life. 
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will comfort them in their trials.
4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and, above all, in death.
5. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings
6. Sinners will find in My Heart an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Lukewarm souls will become fervent.
8. Fervent souls will rapidly grow in holiness and perfection.
9. I will bless every place where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. The names of those who promote this devotion will be written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
12. I promise thee, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment. 

These beautiful  promises are very consoling for a Mamas heart or I'm sure for anyones. but we must remember as with anything we do for the Lord our hearts have to be turned to him in the right disposition, hoping in his merciful love for us.

The revelations that this humble nun received continued for many years and were subjected to severe examination before they were accepted as authentic. Margaret Mary was canonised in 1920

I think this feast deserves some "Sacred Heart" shaped cookies or cakes. let the children decorate them with icing and allow their imagination to run wild!

Heres a good recipe for butter cookies that you can cut out with a heart shaped cutter:
175g Soft Butter
200g Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Egg
400g plain flour
1Tsp. Baking powder
1 Tsp Salt

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add vanilla essence and egg, mix until combined. Sift flour and baking powder, and stir until you have a dough. Add more flour if to sticky to roll.
Halve to dough and wrap both in cling film and allow to rest in fridge for an hour.
Sprinkle work surface with flour, dust rolling pin and roll out to a thickness of 1/2 cm/ 1/4 inch. cut into heart shapes. place on a greased baking tray.Heat oven to 180C/ gas 4/ 350F.  Bake for 8-10 mins until lightly golden around the edges. place on a wire rack to cool.
When cold decorate with icing until your hearts content.
This amount makes about 50 so you can either eat them all or share with your loved ones as you see fit, I'm not going to judge!

St Anthony of Padua

If you could see the state of my house you would understand why I have a devotion to this lovely Saint. I am forever calling upon him to find all those lost articles that never seem to be in the right place. And I don't know why but I'm often surprised when he comes up trumps. My daughter has a beautiful simple story of when this lovely humble Saint returned a diamond from her new  engagement ring which she had lost at work. She had searched and searched everywhere and couldn't find it anywhere she cried out to St. Anthony and low and behold she found the gem sitting on the desk right beside her. So he definitely gets the thumbs up in our house.
 Born Fernando, in Lisbon, Portugal on August 15th 1195 into a wealthy family. At the age of fifteen he asked to be sent to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, the then capital of Portugal.  It was here that he learnt theology and Latin.

Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood a small group of Fransican friars settled just outside Coimbra,  News reached his ears about the martyrdom of five  Fransician friars in Morocco. This inspired Fernado and he felt a longing to join the Fransicans. He asked to be released from the Abbey. Eventually permission was granted and he left to go and join this new community whereupon he took on the name Anthony in honour of St. Anthony of Egypt.

After traveling to Morocco to spread The Good News , Anthony became extremely sick and was forced to  returned to Portugal to recover. The return voyage was blown off-course and his party arrived in Sicily, from which they traveled to Tuscany. Anthony was sent to the hermitage of San Paolo where the  local friars considered this would be best suited to his health problems.

During this period of convalescence Anthony spent a great deal of time praying and studying.

Time passed and some Dominican friars came to visit the Franciscans.  There was some confusion over who would present the homily that day. The Franciscans thought, because the Dominicans, who were known for their preaching, would want to preach. However the Dominicans thought the Fransicians would preach, probably because they were on their turf  so neither group had prepared anything. It was then the head of the Franciscan hermitage asked Anthony to speak on whatever the Holy Spirit told him to speak of.

Not accustomed  to speaking publicly Anthony tried to decline, but he was refused. He delivered an eloquent and moving homily that impressed both groups. It was not long before news of his ability to speak well reached the ears of St. Francis of Assisi. They became great friends and Francis entrusted The Friars continued education to Anthony.

Anthony continued to teach and preach. In fact he was renowned for his very simple way of explaining the faith so that even the simple and uneducated could understand his message.

He was never afraid to take on those who disputed his message and became known as the "Hammer of the Heretics" because he won so many conversions. It is for this reason that he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

After the death of St. Francis in 1226 Anthony was named Provincial Superior of Emilia. He resigned the office in 1230 so that he could spend more time preaching. He retired to the Convent of Padua which he himself had founded.

 The last Lent he preached was that of 1231; the crowd of people which came from all parts to hear him, frequently numbered 30,000 and more. His last sermons were principally directed against hatred and lack of love for ones neighbour. His efforts were crowned with wonderful success. Permanent reconciliations were effected, peace and concord re-established, freedom given to prisoners, restitutions made, and enormous scandals repaired; in fact, the priests of Padua were no longer sufficient for the number of penitents.( Oh that we would have the same problem today!)

After a short illness Anthony died on the 13th of June 1231. The name of this good Saint has continued down the ages as people continue to ask for his prayers and intercession. Interestingly when they exhumed St. Anthony's body in 1263 it was found that his body had turned to dust but his tongue remained in perfect condition. So in honor of this, today it is a good day to have pasta linguine ( which means tongue or little tongues in Latin.)covered in your favorite sauce!