St. Louis composed this prayer asking
for apostles of the latter times. These fiery words are certainly
applicable to our days, when the need for these apostles is so urgent in
face of the universal and profound affliction of Holy Mother Church.
The division into days and subtitles has been added to make it easier to
pray.
1st Day
To Raise Up Men of Thy Right Hand
Remember, O Lord, remember Thy
congregation which Thou did possess from the beginning and think of from
all eternity. It was held in Thy Almighty hand when, by a word, Thou
didst create the world out of nothing. It was hidden in Thy heart when
Thy Divine Son, dying on the Cross, consecrated it by His death and
confided it, as a precious treasure, to the care of His most dear Mother:
Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast possessed from the
beginning (Ps. 73:2).
Accomplish, O Lord, Thy merciful designs; raise up the men of Thy right
hand, such men as Thou hast shown in prophetic vision to some of Thy
greatest servants - to St. Francis of Paola, to St. Vincent Ferrer, to
St. Catherine of Siena, and to many other noble
souls during the last two centuries.
Remember, O Lord: O Almighty God, vouchsafe to remember
this Company, applying to it all the might of Thy arm, which has no
limits, to create, to produce and to bring it to perfection.
Great God, Thou Who out of the very stones can raise
up children to Abraham, in the might of Thy Godhead say but one word to
provide good laborers for Thy harvest and missionaries for Thy Church.
Remember, O Lord: God of infinite goodness, remember Thy
mercies of old and, through this mercy, remember this congregation.
Remember Thy repeated promises that Thou has made to us by Thy Prophets
and by Thine Own Son to grant us all our lawful requests. Remember the
prayers that have been offered To Thee by Thy servants for this end for
so many centuries. Let their wishes, their sighs, their tears, and the
blood that they have shed for Thee come into Thy presence and earnestly
implore Thy mercy. But, above all, remember Thy Dear Son: Look on the
face of Thy Christ (Ps. 83:10). Contemplate His agony, His shame and
confusion, His loving complaint in the Gar- den of Olives, when He said: What
profit is there in My Blood? (Ps. 29:10).
His cruel death, His Blood that poured forth cries out for mercy so that,
by means of this congregation, His Kingdom may be established upon the
ruins of that of His enemies.
Remember, O Lord: Remember, O Lord, this community in the
effects of Thy justice. It is time, O Lord, to do: they have
dissipated Thy law (Ps. 118:126). It is time to do what Thou has promised: Thy Divine Law is transgressed. Thy
Gospel is ignored, Thy religion abandoned. Torrents of iniquity overwhelm
the world, carrying away even Thy servants; the whole earth has become
desolate; impiety is enthroned; Thy sanctuary is profaned, and
abomination has reached even into the holy place.
Will Thou suffer this any longer, just Lord, God of vengeance? Will the
end of all be like that of Sodom and Gomorrah? Will Thou be forever silent?
Must not Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Must not Thy
Kingdom come? Hast Thou not given to some of Thy friends a prophetic
glimpse of the future renovation of Thy Church? Are not the Jews to be
converted to the Truth? Is not this what Thy Church is awaiting? Do not
all the Saints in heaven cry out to Thee: Avenge Thyself? Do not all the
just on earth say to Thee: Amen. Come, O Lord, for the time is at hand
(Apoc. 22:20). Do not all creatures, even the most
insensible, moan under the weight of the numberless sins of Babylon and call for Thy coming to
reestablish all things? For we know that every creature groaneth
(Rom. 8:22).
2nd Day
Detachment from all Earthly Things
Lord Jesus, Remember Thy congregation. Remember to give to Thy Mother a
new company who, through Her, will renew all things and thus, through
Mary, complete the years of grace just as, through Her, Thou did begin
them.
Give me children, otherwise I shall die
(Gen. 30:1): Give to Thy Mother children, servants, or let me die. Give
Thy Mother children. It is for Thy Mother’s sake that I pray to Thee.
Remember that Thou did dwell within her womb, were nourished at Her
breasts, and reject me not. Remember whose Son Thou art and hear me.
Remember what She is to Thee and what Thou art to Her, and grant my
request. What is it I am asking from Thee? Nothing for myself, all for
Thy glory. What am I asking of Thee? What Thou can, and even, I dare say,
what Thou should grant me, being as Thou art the true God to Whom all
power has been given in heaven and on earth and the best of all children,
for Thou loved Thy Mother with an infinite love.
What am I asking of Thee?
Children: Priests, free with Thy freedom, detached from all things,
without father or mother, or brothers or sisters, without relations
according to the world, without means, without worry, without cares, and
even without any will of their own.
Children: Slaves of Thy love and of Thy will: men according to Thy heart,
who, without self-will to stain and hold them back, accomplish all Thy
designs and crush all Thy enemies; other Davids, with the staff of the
Cross and the sling of the holy Rosary in their hands.
Children: souls raised above this earth like heavenly dew who, without impediment, fly hither and thither in
accordance with the breath of the Holy Spirit. It was they, in part, Thy Prophets spoke of when they asked: Who
are these that fly as clouds? (Is. 60:8). Wither the impulse of
the Spirit was to go, there they went (Ez. 1:12).
Children: Men ever at Thy hand, ever ready to obey Thee, like Samuel, at
the voice of their Superiors: Presto sum: I am ready, every ready to run
and suffer everything with Thee and for Thee, like the Apostles: Let
us also go ,that we may die with Him (John 11:16).
Children: True Children of Mary, Thy Holy Mother, who are begotten and
concealed by Her charity, carried in Her bosom, fastened to Her breasts,
nourished with Her milk, reared under Her care, upheld by Her arms, and
enriched with Her graces.
Children: True servants of the Blessed Virgin, who, like other Saint
Dominics, would go everywhere carrying the bright and burning torch of
the Holy Gospel in their mouths and the holy Rosary in their hands;
barking, like faithful watchdogs, at the wolves who would fain tear to
pieces the flock of Jesus Christ; burning like fires and lighting up the
darkness of the World like other suns. Men who would, by means of a true
devotion to Mary, that is to say, interior, not hypocritical; exterior,
not critical; prudent, not ignorant; tender, not indifferent; constant,
not unsteady; and holy, without presumption, crush wherever they go the
head of the old serpent, in order that the curse Thou placed on him might
be entirely fulfilled: I will put enmities between thee and the Woman and
thy seed and Her seed: She shall crush thy head (Gen. 3:15).
3rd Day
In Combat with the Devil
It is true, great God, that as Thou has predicted, the world will lay
mighty snares to entrap the heel of this mysterious woman, that is to
say, the little company of her children who will emerge toward the end of
the world, and that there will be a mighty enmity between this blessed
posterity of Mary and the cursed race of Satan. But it is a divine
enmity, and the only one of which Thou art the author: I will put
enmities. But these combats and persecutions that the children of the
race of Belial will inflict on Thy Blessed Mother’s race will only serve
to show to greater advantage the power of Thy grace and the courage of
their virtue and the authority of Thy Mother, since Thou hast given to
Her, from the beginning of the world, the commission to curse this proud
spirit by the humility of Her Heart: She shall crush thy head.
If not this, then I shall die: Is it not better that I should die rather
than see my God cruelly offended every day and myself in constant danger
of being carried away by the unopposed and ever-increasing torrents of
iniquity? Ah, death would be to me a thousand times preferable. Either
send me help from heaven or take away my soul. Yes, if I did not hope
that sooner or later Thou would, in the interest of Thy glory, hear his
poor sinner as Thou has already heard so many others: This poor man
cried, and the Lord heard him (Ps. 33:7), then I would pray to Thee
just as the Prophet did: Take away my soul! (Kings 19:4)
But the confidence that I have in Thy mercy makes me say with another
Prophet: I shall not die, but live; and shall declare the works of the
Lord (Ps. 117:17) until I can say with Simeon: Now Thou dost
dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, in peace, because my eyes have seen Thy
salvation (Luke 2:29).
4th Day
Formed by the Holy Spirit in Mary
Remember, O Lord, O Holy Spirit, remember to produce and to
form children of God with Thy divine and faithful Spouse, Mary. Thou did
form Jesus Christ, the Chief of the predestined, with Her and in Her. It
is with Her and in Her that Thou should form all His members; Thou did
beget no divine person in the Divinity; but it is Thou alone Who forms
all holy persons out of the Divinity; and all the saints that have been
or shall be until the end of the world are so many works of Thy love
united with Mary. The special reign of God the Father lasted until the Deluge,
and was concluded by a deluge of water. The reign of Jesus Christ was
concluded by a deluge of Blood. But Thy reign, Spirit of the Father and
of the Son, continues at the present time and will be concluded by deluge
of fire, of love, of justice.
When shall it come, this deluge of fire and pure love, which Thou art to
enkindle in all the earth with so much strength and sweetness that all
nations, Turks, idolaters, even the Jews, will burn with it and be
converted? And there is no one who can hide himself from his heat
(Ps. 18:7).
May it be enkindled: May this divine fire, which Jesus Christ came to
bring the world be enkindled before that of Thy anger, which will reduce
everything to ashes. Send forth Thy spirit and they shall be created;
and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103:30). Send forth
the spirit of fire upon the earth to create priests all aflame, by whose
ministry the face of the earth may be renewed and the Church reformed.
Remember Thy congregation, O Lord: It is a congregation, an assembly, a
choice selection of predestined souls, which Thou must make in the world
and of the world: I have chosen you out of the world (John 15:19). It is a flock of peaceful
sheep which Thou must collect from among the wolves; a company of chaste
doves and royal eagles from among so many ravens; a swarm of honey bees
from among so many wasps; a herd of fleet deer from among so many
tortoises; a battalion of courageous lions from among so many timid
hares. Ah! Lord: Gather us from among the nations (Ps. 105:47).
Call us together, unite us, that we may render
all glory to Thy holy and powerful name.
5th Day
Complete trust in Providence
Thou did predict this illustrious company to Thy Prophets who spoke of it
in inspired, although in very obscure and very secret, terms:
Thou
shall set aside for Thy inheritance a free rain, O God; and it was
weakened, but Thou hast made it perfect. In it shall Thy animals dwell:
in Thy sweetness, O God, Thou hast provided for the poor. The Lord shall
give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power. The king
of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house
shall divide spoils. If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be
as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her
back with the paleness of gold. When He that is in heaven appointed kings
over her, they shall be white with snow in Selmon. The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled
mountain, a fat mountain. Why suspect, ye curdled mountains? A mountain
in which God is well pleased to swell: for there the Lord shall dwell
unto the end
(Ps. 67: 10-17).
What is this voluntary rain which Thou has
separated and chosen for Thy weakened heritage if not these missionaries,
these children of Mary, Thy Spouse, whom Thou art to assemble and to
separate from the world for the good of Thy Church so afflicted and so
weakened by the crimes of her children?
What are these animals and these poor who will dwell in Thy heritage, to
be there nourished with the heavenly sweetness that Thou has prepared for
them, if not these poor missionaries trusting in Providence, who will be
satiated with Thy divine joys; if not those mysterious animals of
Ezekiel, having the humanity of man by their disinterest and beneficent
charity toward their neighbor; the courage of the lion by their holy
anger and their ardent, prudent zeal against the demons and the children
of Babylon; and the strength of the ox by their apostolic labors and
their mortification of the flesh, and finally, the swiftness of the eagle
by their contemplation in God?
These are the missionaries whom Thou wish to send to Thy Church. They
shall have the eye of a man for their neighbor, the eye of a lion for Thy
enemies, the eye of an ox for themselves, and the eye of an eagle for
Thee. These imitators of the Apostles shall preach with a strength and a virtue so great and so striking that
they will stir up all minds and all hearts, wheresover they will preach.
It is to them that Thou wilt give Thy word: even
Thy mouth and Thy wisdom: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom,
which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist or gainsay
(Luke 21: 15), which none of Thy enemies will be able to resist.
It is among these well-beloved that Thou, Holy Spirit, as King of the
virtues of Jesus Christ, the Well-Beloved, will take Thy delight. For in
all their missions, they shall have no other end in view than that of
giving to Thee all the glory of the spoils taken from Thy enemies: The
king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved, and the beauty of the
house shall divide the spoils.
By their trust in Providence and their devotion to Mary,
they shall have the silvery wings of the dove: that is to say, a perfect
charity toward their neighbors to bear with their defects, and a great
love for Jesus Christ to carry His Cross.
Thou alone, as King of heaven and King of kings, shall set apart from the
world these missionaries like so many kings, in order to make them whiter
than the snow on the top of Mount Selmon, the mountain of God, the strong
and fertile mountain in which God takes wonderful delight and in which He
dwells and shall dwell until the end.
Lord God of Truth, Who is this mysterious mountain of which Thou speakest
such wonderful things if not Mary, Thy dear Spouse, whose foundation Thou
has placed upon the tops of the highest mountains? The foundations
thereof are in the holy mountains ... the mountain of the house of the
Lord shall be prepared in the top of mountains (Ps. 86:1; Mich. 4:1).
Happy, a thousand times happy, are the priests whom Thou has chosen and
predestined to dwell with Thee upon this abundant and divine mountain,
there to become the kings of eternity by their contempt of the world and
their elevation in God; there to be made whiter than snow by their union
with Mary, Thy spouse, all beautiful, all pure, all immaculate; there to
be enriched with the dew of heaven and the riches of the land, with all
the temporal and eternal blessings with which Mary is filled.
It is from the top of this mountain that, like other Moses’, they shall
direct the arrows of their ardent prayers against their enemies to crush
or to convert them. It is upon this mountain that they shall learn, even
from the lips of Jesus Christ, Who always dwells there, the meaning of
His Eight Beatitudes. It is upon this mountain of God that they shall be
transfigured with Him as upon Tabor, die with Him as upon Calvary, and ascend to heaven with
Him as upon Mount Olivet.
6th Day
That they may extinguish the fire in the House of God
Remember, O Lord, Thy congregation: It is Thy Grace alone
that must form this company. If man touches it first, nothing will be
done. If he interferes with Thy work, he will spoil all, overturn all. Thy
congregation: It is Thy work, great God. Do Thy work: do Thy all-divine
work; collect, call, gather together Thy elect from all places over which
Thou has domination and make of them a strong army to defend Thy heritage
against Thy enemies.
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Seest
Thou, Lord, God of battles, seest Thou the captains who are forming full
battalions, the potentates who are assembling whole fleets, the merchants
gathering in large numbers at the markets and the fairs? Crowds of
robbers, drunkards, libertines, impious men are uniting against Thee
every day - and so easily and promptly. The sound of a whistle, the beat
of a drum, the sight of a blunt sword-tip, the promise of a withered
laurel wreath, the offer of a bit of gold or silver; in a word, a breath
of fame and earthly interest, a vile pleasure for which they long can, in
a moment, unite robbers as one, call forward soldiers, assemble
battalions, bring together merchants, fill houses and market places and
cover the earth and the sea with an innumerable multitude of the
reprobate, who, although divided among themselves by the places whence
they come, by the differences in their dispositions or by their personal
interests, are nevertheless united as one man, until death, to fight
against Thee under the banner and the leadership of the demon.
And we, great God! Although there is so much glory and profit, so much
sweetness and so many advantages to be gained by serving Thee, shall
there be so few to take up Thy cause? Hardly any soldiers under Thy
banner! Nary a St. Michael to proclaim among Thy brethren in zeal for Thy
glory: Who is like unto God?
Ah, let me cry out everywhere: Fire! Fire! Fire! Help! Help! Help!
Fire even within the sanctuary! Help for our brother who is being
murdered! Help for our children whose throats are being cut! Help for our
Father Who is being stabbed! If any man be on the Lord’s side, let him
join with me (Ex. 32:26).
Let all good priests who are spread over the Christianworld, and those
who are actually on the battlefield and those who have withdrawn from the
combat to bury themselves in deserts and solitude, let them all come
forward and unite with us — in unity there is strength — so that we may
form, under the banner of the Cross, a well-regulated army in battle
array, and together attack the enemies of God who have already sounded
the alarm. They have shouted; they have raged; they have swelled their
ranks. Let us break their bonds asunder; let us cast away their yoke
from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them (Ps.
2:3-4). Let the Lord arise, and let His enemies be dispersed.
Arise, O Lord, why sleepest Thou? Arise: Arise, O Lord, why feignest Thou
to sleep? Arise in Thy might, Thy mercy, and Thy justice, to form Thyself
a chosen bodyguard to keep Thy house, to defend Thy glory, and to save
the souls bought at the price of Thy Precious Blood, so that there may be
but one fold and one shepherd, and that all may glorify Thee in Thy holy
temple: And in His temple all shall proclaim His glory. Amen.
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