This work comes in three parts.The first part is devoted to the prayers of the Mass. At the end of this section is a striking miracle of the Holy Eucharist.The second part is devoted to the ceremonies of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, according to the Tridentine Rite. This is very useful for any priest who wishes to devoutly celebrate the Mass. This even includes instructions for when a priest should put his spectacles (glasses) on to read from the Missal and when to remove them. The last section contains prayers of preparation for Mass and in thanksgiving after Mass. In the preface we read: "These different writings give evidence of the zeal that animated our venerated author in regard to the divine Sacrifice on our altars. From his childhood he was admired for the tender devotion with which he attended Mass, received Communion, or spent his time in adoring the messed Sacrament. This virtue only grew and became more perfect as he advanced in age. Even in the midst of the world, notwithstanding the occupations and the cares of the profession which he at first embraced, he went every day to visit his dear Lord exposed in one of the churches of Naples, and there on his knees and immovable, he spent long hours before the altar, contemplating the object of his affection with so humble and so recollected an attitude, that he appeared to be out of himself; all persons that saw him were profoundly edified. Such piety was to receive its reward; for thus we read in his writings: .. I feel myself bound, at least out of gratitude to my Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, to declare that by means of this devotion of visiting the Most Blessed Sacrament, which I practised, though with so much tepidity and in so imperfect a manner, I abandoned the world, in which, unfortunately. I lived until six· and-twenty years of age.""Saint Alphonsus makes an interesting prophesy: "And this offering which our Lord then made of himself did not limit itself to that moment, but it only then began; it always has continued since, and it will continue forever. It is true it will cease on earth at the time of Antichrist: the Sacrifice of the Mass is to be suspended for twelve hundred and ninety days; that is, for three years six months and a half, according to the prophecy of Daniel: And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.' Yet the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ will never cease, since the Son of God will always continue to offer himself to his Father by an eternal sacrifice, for he himself is the priest and the victim, but ao eternal victim and an eternal priest, not according to the order of Aaron."

The Holy Mass

Religion & Spirituality

Ligouri, St. ALphonsus de

Christian Books & Bibles

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Saint Alphonsus tells us a good story: “If a traveller, on his journey to his own country; were to stop and spend his all in building a palace in a land through which he ought only to pass, and neglect to provide a dwelling for himself in that country in which her was to reside his whole life, he would be thought mad. And must not the Christian be deemed mad who think only of gratifying himself in this world, through which, he has only to pass during a few days, and heeds not the danger of being miserable in the next, where he must live forever, as long as God shall be God?” This holy saint tells us: “An act of contrition and of love makes us friends of God.” He then warns: “St. Teresa said that all sins had their origin in a want of faith.” Let us consider this well and then heed his advice: “Therefore, in order to overcome our passions and temptations, we ought constantly to revivie our faith by saying: I believe the life everlasting. I believe that after this life, which will soon be ended, there is an eternal life, either full of joys, or full of pains, which will befall me, accotding to my merits or demerits.” Let us consider these six rules to become a saint and we are all called to become saints: “If, then, we truly desire to become saints, let us resolve: “1. To avoid every venial sin, however slight. 2”. To detach ourselves from every earthly desire. “3. Let us not cease OUI- accustomed· exercises of prayer and mortification, however great may be the weariness and dryness we feel in them. “4. Let us meditate daily on the Passion of Jesus Christ, which inflames with divine love every heart that meditates upon it. “5. Let us resign ourselves in peace to the will of God in all things that trouble us, as Father Balthazar Alvarez said, "He that in troubles resigns himself to the divine will, runs to God as swift as by a post." “6. Let us continually beg of God the gift of his holy love.”

The Way of Salvation and of Perfection

Studying the Lives of the Saints will help us imitate their virtues. Some may ask, why study the lives of the Martyrs? Their lives are extraordinary in that they suffered the cruelest of torments for the love of Jesus Christ, which we will not be called upon to suffer. There are many reasons to study the lives of the Saints. Saint Alphonsus tells us: “It maybe useful here to remark, with St. Augustine, that it is not the torture, but the cause, which makes the martyr. Whence St. Thomas teaches that martyrdom is to suffer death in the exercise of an act of virtue. From which we may infer, that not only he who by the hands of the executioner lays down his life for the faith, but whoever dies to comply with the divine will, and to please God, is a martyr, since in sacrificing himself to the divine love he performs and act of the most exalted virtue. We all have to pay the great debt of nature; let us therefore endeavor, in holy prayer, to obtain resignation to the divine will—to receive death and every tribulation in conformity with the dispensations of His Providence. As often as we shall perform this act of resignation with sufficient fervor, we may hope to be made partakers of the merits of the martyrs. St. Mary Magdalene, in reciting the doxology, always bowed her head in the same spirit she would have done in receiving the stroke of the executioner.” And there is a further reason to study the lives of the Martyrs. Martyrdom is not something that is offered to the mediocre, but to the fervent Christian. Some martyrs lived a century of holiness prior to consummating their martyrdom. Martyrdom is a straight ticket to heaven, but it is a ticket that is often earned by a pious life. True there are those very few, who convert and then are immediately martyred. But many more lived a fervent Christian life, which was crowned with the grace of martyrdom. Althoguh we may not give our lives in the manner they did at the end, we can give our lives in the manner they gave their lives before called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Victories of the Martyrs

WE have gathered in this volume all that has reference to the holy ministry of preaching, its importance, the good that it accomplishes, and the manner of exercising it, so that the greatest amount of fruit may be derived from it. In regard to the ministry of preaching, we must distinguish its three parts, namely: the first has for its object PREACHING IN GENERAL, its necessity from a point of view of divine Providence, and the manner in which one should preach in order to make preaching successful under all circumstances; the second regards the MISSIONS, their various exercises, and the means that one should employ to make them a success; the third is INSTRUCTION, or the. Large Catechism, which' one should use while giving it, and the best method that should be followed in order to interest, to enlighten, and to move others, either during the mission or at any other time.We shall not fail to remark the persistency with which our holy Doctor recommends on every occasion natural simplicity of language, and reprobates every expression that savors of grandiloquence, studied eloquence, or any pretension to elegance. This is a rule that he rigorously imposed upon all those that lived under his authority; he himself always followed this rule, not only in his discourses, but also in all his writings.St. Alphonsus, in preaching and in having others to preach in this manner, which is joined to the practice of all the virtues that make men truly apostolic, has effected and does not cease to effect through his children an immense deal of good. With feelings of gratitude to God, he thus congratulates himself in a circular addressed to the worthy companions of his labors, who had been formed after his school.;"My dearest Brothers in Jesus Christ: The principal thing that I recommend to you is the love of Jesus Christ. Very much are we bound to love him. For this end he has chosen us from all eternity, and called us into his Congregation, there to love him, and to make others also love him. What greater honor, what greater mark of love, could Jesus Christ have shown us? He has snatched us from the midst of the world, in order to d raw us to his love, and that, during the pilgrimage of this life, by which we must pass into eternity, we might think of nothing but of pleasing him, and of bringing those crowds of people to love him who every year, by means of our ministry, abandon sin, and return to the grace of God. It is generally the case that when we begin a mission the greater number of the people of the place are at enmity with God, and deprived of his love; but five or six days have scarcely elapsed when, behold, numbers, as if roused from a deep sleep, begin to listen to the exhortations, the instructions, and the sermons; and when they see that God offers them his mercy, they begin to weep over their sins, and conceive the desire of being reconciled with him; the way of pardon is opened before them, and seeing it, they begin to abhor that manner of life which they had previously loved; a new light begins to shine upon them, and a peace hitherto unknown touches their hearts. Then they think of going to confession, to remove from their. souls those vices which kept them separated from God; and whereas before a Mass of a quarter of an hour appeared to them too long, five decades of the Rosary too tedious, and a sermon of half an hour unendurable, they now gladly hear a second and a third Mass, and tney are sorry when the sermon, which has lasted an hour and a half, or perhaps two hours, is over. And of whom does the Lord make use, if not of us, to work so wondrous changes, and to bring the people to delight in those very things that before they despised? When the mission is over, we leave in the place two or three thousand persons who love Almighty God, who before were living at enmity with him, and who were not even thinking of recovering his grace."

Preaching

THIS book, which was published in 1759, is one of the most important works of Saint Alphonsus. He himself explains what it has cost him, and the value that he sets upon it. In his preface to the" Preparation for Death," he speaks thus: "This book, though small, has cost me a great deal of labor. I regard it as of extreme utility to all sorts of persons; and I unhesitatingly assert that among all spiritual treatises, there is none, and there can be none, more necessary than that which treats on prayer as a means of obtaining eternal salvation."Saint Alphonsus gives the plan of his work: "In order, then, to attach ourselves to this great means of salvation, we must first of all consider how necessary it is to us, and how powerful it is to obtain for us all the graces that we can desire from God, if we know how to ask for them as we ought. Hence, in the first part, we will speak first of the necessity and power of prayer; and next, of the conditions necessary to make it efficacious with God. Then, in the second part, we will show that the grace of prayer is given to all ; and there we will treat of the manner in which grace ordinarily operates."Saint Alphonsus begins: "ONE of the errors of Pelagian ism was the assertion that prayer is not necessary for salvation. Pelagius, the impious author of that heresy, said that man will only be damned for neglecting to know the truths necessary to be learned. How astonishing! St. Augustine said: "Pelagius discussed everything except how to pray," though, as the saint held and taught, prayer is the only means of acquiring the science of the saints; according to the text of St. James: 'If any man want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth abundantly, and upbraideth not.' The Scriptures are clear enough in pointing out how necessary it is to pray, if we would be saved."Further on we read: "We will, as we promised, demonstrate that the grace of prayer is given to all men. But this doctrine does not please Jansenius; he goes so far as to call it an hallucination: "It is an hallucination to think that the grace of prayer is always present to a man." According to his system, he considers that without the delectation relatively victorious we cannot pray; but this delight is not granted to all men, therefore (he adds) all men have not sufficient grace and power to fulfil the commandments; for many are without even the remote grace to enable them to pray as they ought, or indeed to pray at all. "Since, therefore," he continues, "most men either do not ask for grace to enable them to fulfil the law, or do not ask for it as is necessary; and since God does not give all men the grace either to pray fervently, or even to pray at all, it is most evident that many of the faithful are without that sufficient grace, and, consequently, without that perpetual power of fulfilling the one precept (of the moment) which some theologians proclaim," Before, then, we prove our own position, we must confute his pernicious system, from which all his errors are derived; and we must show that not we, Imt that he is laboring under an hallucination."

The Great Means of Salvation and Perfection: Prayer-Mental Prayer-The Exercises of a Retreat-Choice of a State of Life, and the Vocation to the Religious State and the Priesthood

St. Alphonsus de Ligouri remains one of the most popular authors of all time with some 21,000 editions of his various works published since his death in 1787. Here are several of his more popular writings which include Uniformity With God's Will, On the Passion of Jesus Christ, Maxims for the Direction of the Soul, and more.

Select Writings of St. Alphonsus de Ligouri

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