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Prayer is, of all things on earth, that which approaches nearest to Heaven. Every being must give glory to God, for this is the very purpose of creation. Indeed, we may say that every being does, in its own way, pay homage to God. “The Heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands. Day to day He uttereth speech and night to night knowledge.” The whole of creation sings a hymn to the living God: The orbs of Heaven, by following in their harmonious revolutions the course He has traced for them; matter by obeying the laws imposed by Him; the animals, by their elaborate organisms and their marvellous instincts. Nevertheless, all this inanimate creation, all these living things that fly through the air, that creep or run or bound upon the earth, that hide in the depths of the ocean, are unconscious of the office that they fulfil. They follow blindly the laws and instincts of their nature. Until the creation of Man, ‘Homosapiens’ these wonders had no witness capable of admiring them, this magnificent scene was unfolded before blind and deaf spectators. At length came Man a being superior to all those which had hitherto appeared upon the earth before, gifted with intelligence, reason, will, emotion, he sees, understands, examines, analyses, compares, draws conclusions and presents his findings in a miriad of wonderful ways one of those being artistically as is presented here in IMMACULATA COSMICA.
Man, will seek out its laws and enter into its harmonies. He is so to speak creations Cantor. In the immortal words of Pascal: “Man is but a reed, the feeblest thing in nature; but a reed which thinks. There is no need for the whole universe to be armed against him in order to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water, is sufficient to destroy him. Yet should the universe crush him, Man would still be more noble than that which kills him, because he knows that he dies, he knows that the universe is stronger than he: the universe knows nothing of it. “Such is the being who will give Him thanks, who will be the voice of all, who will adore “In spirit and in truth,” singing in the name of creation the Canticle Benedicte: “All the works of The Lord, bless The Lord, praise and exalt Him above forever.” This is his vocation so little, why, since the fall, so many neither adore nor give thanks for all creation or even themselves, it is not for me to explain here; I can but mention it with sadness and regret. All the more august, then, all the more precious and sublime, is the vocation of those who understand the necessity of prayer and a prayerful act, and who consecrate their lives to the praise of God, and to intercession for themselves and for their brethren. They form the “Little flock” to whom the Father has given the Kingdom (St. Luke Xii. 32).
If even in the natural order of prayer and praise are the duty of every man, in the supernatural order this duty, like every other, is elevated and sanctified. Nor does it consist merely in private, individual prayer. Man is a social being. He is not an isolated, independent, autonomous creature, playing his part without a care for the other members of his race. He is a family, a city, he is the church. As a social being he is bound to pay to God a social homage to which the church has organised. She is not satisfied with inviting us to praise and glorify God by just our lives and by our private prayers: she has instituted a public official worship, namely in the Liturgy and the Divine Office. By liturgical prayers we mean those officially prescribed by the Church in the Missal, Breviary, Ritual, Pontifical and Diurnal publications and preferably untainted, avoid anything Novus Ordo and post Vatican II. Now, if every prayer addressed to God, by a Christian, with a pure and upright heart , is a good work, much more may this be said of liturgical prayer, which is both more excellent and more efficacious than private prayer. It is not difficult to assign the reasons, – Liturgical Prayer is the prayer of the church.
Hence we may gauge the deeper meanings and the values it derives from this very universality. In the first place, it is the churches prayer, Private prayer has a personal value, varying according to the degree of faith, fervour, and Holiness of him who prays. The churches prayer has always, in itself, and independently of the person praying, had an absolute value. It is a formula composed by the church, and carrying with it Her authority. Now, the church can no more be deceived when She offers us a formula of prayer than when She prescribes a formula of faith: ” Legem credendi: lex statuat suppleiandi, ” said the ancients: ” The law of prayer establishes the law of faith.” The church is the well beloved and the only bride of Christ, “She is always pleasing to Him, and Her desires are always granted: She knows best what words will appeal to His heart. It is the Holy Ghost who prays in Her, with these unspeakable groanings” (Romans Viiii, 26). When uttering these formulas the Christian is 100% sure of being heard, for he is a member of the church, of which Christ is the head. The Christian prays and therefore never, ever prays alone: he prays with Christ, the eternal Priest and intercessor who pleads for us before his Heavenly Father and with the communion of Saints in Heaven. This prayer in a word is Catholic, and anyone who by chance stumbles upon IMMACULATA COSMICA will, it is hoped, perceive the images created and presented here to have been born out of a prayerful act and activity.
Most Liturgical prayer and its expressions are presented in the plural: “Let us pray,” “Let they mercy , O Lord be upon us,” “Hear us O Lord our salvation,” Even those prayers that are presented in the singular are applied to the individual only in sofar as he prays in union with his brethren; as in the “Deus in adjutorium,” “Incline unto mine aid, O God; O Lord make haste to help me.” In fact, this prayer is that of the choir, it is intended to be said in common. Even when recited privately it retains and keeps its public nature; it is and will always be universally Catholic; it is the Christian people that pray, and those prayers are said by the faithful, and by all the faithful (at least virtually) the whole world over.
Hence one may gauge meaning and the deeper meanings of the value it derives from this very beautiful and Divinely inspired gift of its unique and untouchable universality born out of the Tridentine Latin right and the Divine will of its creator, The Alpha and The Omega, The was, The Is and The shall be and forevermore.
Amen.
Divine love is ingenious. The holy soul ever invents new means to think of, and to love Jesus, the object of her affections. The presence of creatures only serves to remind the fervent Christian of the Great Creator, that he may love Him. “The Heavens and the earth, “says St. Augustine, ” Tell me to love Thee, O my God.” And when the Saint beheld the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains and the rivers, they appeared to him to say ” Augustine, love your God; for He has created us for you, that you might love Him.” O most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Inspire us to avail ourselves of every occasion to think of Thee, and to love Thee. O how many are the daily occasions of thinking on Our Blessed Lord.
For instance, the rain falls in heavy showers upon us, or we hear it pitter-patter on our windows; we turn our thoughts to Jesus and say – I wish that every drop of this shower, as well as all the rain that has ever fallen, were an act of Holy Love and fervent reparations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the most adorable and Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We then may take a walk by the sea-shore, wave succeeds wave they break and foam at our feet. The guttural thunder from the seas depths reminds the thoughtful soul of the Almighty. We say – Would that every drop of water of all the great oceans, the seas, the lakes, and the rivers, were an harmonious act of love and Holy reparations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the most adorable and Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The grains of sand on the sea-shore appear as countless as those droplets of water from the deep. In our souls we may say – I wish that every grain of sand in the world had an angel’s tongue to praise and bless, to adore and to love the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the most adorable and Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Next we journey onto dry land and into the forests, here we see the leaves on the trees in all their varied forms, hues, and beauty, they appear just as countless as those grains of sand on the sea- shore, or as infinite as those droplets of water that make up the deep; we turn our thoughts to Jesus and say – I desire for every leaf in the forests of the world, to elicit a perfect act of faith, of homage, of love, and of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the most adorable and Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In spring and in summer we love to walk through the lush gardens and the fields, meditating on all the lovely, colourful flowers, and on the blades of grass which stand proud pointing Heavenwards guiding us towards the stars in their myriads and our true home above. We think of Jesus and say – I wish that every blade of grass which the earth has ever produced, or shall produce, had the Immaculate Heart of Mary to adore and to love, to praise and glorify the most adorable and the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We continue to look to the Heavens, we see the planets revolving in harmony and in the order of God’s bidding; we admire the twinkling stars “scattered,” says a famous astronomer,” In their millions like glittering clouds of dust.” In calculating their magnitude, their distance from us, our minds expand, so to speak, in wondrous admiration of the wisdom and omnipotence of the Great Creator.
For instance, the sun is about 95 million miles distant from us; the nearest fixed star is distant from us 20, 000, 000, 000, 000 – 20 billion miles, and distinct observations can be made on fixed stars, distant 17, 000 billion in miles! A ray of light, travelling as it does, at the velocity of 12 million miles a minute, would take 2,600 years to come to the earth from these stars, so that the light of which they emitted at the birth of the Redeemer will not come to the earth for another 700 years more. A cannon ball, travelling at the uniform velocity of 20 miles a minute, would take 1,530,000 years to come to the earth from those stars. The magnitude of the works of God!
By the means of a microscope we could see the atom of a grain of gold, divided into 50,000,000 parts. Powerful microscopes can discern insects so small that it is calculated 1,000, 000,000,000 could fit into a cubic inch and 150 million could dance around in a glass of water. The minuteness of the works of God!
Here the human mind, though yet far from the frontiers of creation, is lost, so to speak, in the boundless realms of micro and macrocosmic space. “The Heavens, ” Says the Royal Psalmist, ” Show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the works of His hands” (Psalm 19 – 2). The light of God’s presence shines upon the most remotest of orbs as it does upon our very own souls. ” Do not I fill Heaven and the earth, saith the Lord” (Jerimiah 23 – 24) All the space which the mind of man can survey, and trackless regions beyond the grasps and scope of human intellect and imagination, are but points of seeming insignificance compared to the infinite immensity of the Almighty God.
When we look up to the heavens and to the Immaculate Cosmos the (Immaculata Cosmica) and when our minds by the aid of true science, travel from orb to orb through the boundless realms of space, let us conceive all space as fulfilled by God, from the most minutest of particles that matter has, is and will make manifest, and let us wish that each of those atoms to be an incredible act of lively faith, of the most proud homage; of purest love, and of the most Holy reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the most adorable and the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
O sweetest Jesus! Grant us an ardent love for Thy Sacred Heart and inspire us with a true and renewed spirit of reparation and consecration to your Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. O Lord you are the Alpha and the Omega and you make all things new.
Amen.