Monthly devotions are, I think, one of the wonderful ways in which the Church helps us to sanctify time. Indeed, the old indulgences in the Raccolta encourage us to use prayers for at least a month: many even of the humblest ejaculatory prays are, when we use them perserveringly for a month, under the usual conditions, accorded a plenary indulgence. Twice blessed, then, if you can match a worthy prayer from the Raccolta (and there, aren’t they all worthy?) to the devotion recommended by the Church during a particular month. September, for example, is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

On this the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, the day on which the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum” comes into effect, in the month dedicated to Our Lady sorrowing, in an era when the Supreme Pontiff has long faced attacks from all sides, I thought that this prayer from the Raccolta was worth sharing. I have taken it as my devotion for this month. Of your charity, I ask you to pray it with me today, for the Supreme Pontiff and for the Church:

Most Holy Virgin and Mother, whose soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow in the Passion of thy divine Son, and who in His glorious Resurrection wast filled with never-ending joy at His triumph; obtain for us who call upon thee, so to be partakers in the adversities of Holy Church and the sorrows of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to be found worthy to rejoice with them in the consolations for which we pray, in the charity and peace of the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Virgo et Mater sanctissima, cuius animam in divini Filii tui passione doloris gladius pertransivit, et quae in gloriosa eius resurrectione perennem triumphantis laetitiam percepisti; impetra nobis supplicibus tuis, ita sanctae Ecclesiae adversitatibus Summique Pontificis doloribus consociari, ut optatis etiam consolationibus laetificari cum ipsis mereamur, in caritate et pace eiusdem Christi Domini nostri. Amen.

(Pope St. Pius X, rescript in his own hand, January 25, 1906.)

Tobias Petrus, Franciscus, and I will be in Maine, New York tonight at the Mt. St. Francis Hermitage to hear the first of what will now be a weekly old rite Mass to be said each Friday evening at 7PM. Confessions begin at 6:15PM.