Call to PRAYER and PENANCE

in union with

Our Lady of Sorrows

FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER

Sunday, August 31st

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Faithful Advocate is announcing a call to Prayer and Penance to petition Almighty God that He would deign to bestow upon His Church, in particular the Diocese of Charlotte (and any participating Dioceses), the graces we need in this time of persecution.

We have one more month before the Bishop of Charlotte, Michael Martin, relegates all parish-based Traditional Latin Masses to a remote Chapel in Mooresville, needlessly separating thousands of Catholics from their parish families and friends and pastors.

In accordance with the practices and Traditions of our Holy Catholic Faith, Faithful Advocate invites everyone in the Diocese of Charlotte (and beyond) to embrace a month of prayer, fasting, self-denial, almsgiving, and good deeds as a sacrifice in petition to Almighty God that He may come to our aid in this time of greatest need.

It is fitting to do this during the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows, and Providentially timed, we can hope, since the Church teaches that Our Lord willed for Our Lady to suffer in union Him for the redemption of the world, that she may truly merit to be the Mediatrix of all graces and our Holy Mother.

Further, it is fitting to embark upon a time of penance during September for it is within the traditional time of St. Michael’s Lent, a time to renew our devotion to this great and powerful angelic advocate.

The enactment of the needless restrictions upon the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Charlotte will go into effect on the Feast of the Guardian Angels, October 2nd.

In light of the above, Faithful Advocate invites everyone, as much as they are able, to

• pray the Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows daily

• pray the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel daily

• pray the “Angel of God” prayer daily

…in addition, to embrace such penitential works, as much as they are able, as (see end of email for more)

• fasting

• abstinence from meat

• almsgiving

• some form of self-denial

• any sacrifice that is fitting for your life.

The great Saints in the history of the Church have always turned to these spiritual means in order to obtain an abundance of grace from Almighty God. These same great Saints have performed innumerable miracles and facilitated the conversion of souls and even nations.

Let us take courage, cling to Our Lady of Sorrows, unite our prayers and sacrifices with hers, and join with Her in suffering with Our Lord as co-redeemers in the Mystical Body of Christ, in order to call down innumerable graces upon ourselves, our families, and our Diocese.

God will be pleased. We will grow in holiness. Our Diocese will obtain many blessings.

In the end, all is in God’s hands. Our deeper union with Him will enable us to joyfully accept His will, whatever it may be.

Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini!

In Christ,

Faithful Advocate

~~~~~~~~~~~

Further examples of penitential practices

• fasting several days a week

• abstaining from meat

• self-denial of some material good (technology, sweets, coffee, snacks, etc.)

• some form of penance fitting to your health and state in life

• works of charity (almsgiving)

• embracing all daily sufferings with patience

• fulfilling the calls from Pope Ven. Pius XII, which he enumerated in his Encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi, which, by embracing, he assured will “draw down on the souls of men a rain of heavenly gifts freely bestowed by God”:

  • pray fervently to God

  • participate every day if possible in the Eucharistic Sacrifice

  • relieve the distress of the needy and of the sick by works of Christian charity

  • set our hearts on the good things of eternity rather than on the passing things of this world

  • restrain this mortal body by voluntary mortification

  • deny ourselves what is forbidden

  • force ourselves to do what is hard and distasteful

  • humbly accept as from God's hands the burdens and sorrows of this present life

• …all for this present intention.