June 20, 2022: DIVINE HANDS OF OUR SAVIOUR

June 20, 2022: DIVINE HANDS OF OUR SAVIOUR

[II Ferial after the Feast of Corpus Christi]

 

“With Thy Arm Thou hast redeemed Thy people the children of Jacob and of Joseph.”
(Ps, lxxvi. 16)

“He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather together the lambs with His Arm, and shall take them up in His bosom, and He Himself shall carry them that are with young.”
(Isaias, xl. 11)

 

Click here, to view a section dedicated to the Divine Hands.

 

Prayer (Collect).

Almighty God, we beseech Thee grant us the grace of deliverance from the hands of our enemies, whilst we place all our confidence in the Divine Hands of Thy Son, through the same Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

 

Divine Hands of our Saviour, help us.
Pardon, my God, Pardon.

 

Lesson from the Mass of the Divine Hands.
Book of Esther, xiii., 9-17.

In those days, Mardochai besought the Lord, saying: O Lord, Lord Almighty King, for all things are in Thy power, and there is none that can resist Thy will if Thou determine to save Israel, Thou hast made heaven and earth and all things that are under the cope of the heavens. Thou art Lord of all, and there is none that can resist Thy Majesty. Thou knowest all things. And now, O Lord God of Abraham, O King, have mercy on Thy people, because our enemies resolve to destroy us and extinguish Thy inheritance. Despise not Thy portion which Thou hast redeemed for Thyself out of Egypt. Hear my supplication and be merciful to Thy lot and inheritance, and turn our mourning into joy, that we may live and praise Thy name, O Lord; and shut not the mouths of them that sing to Thee.

 

Gospel from the Mass of the Divine Hands.
S. Matthew, viii, 23-27

At that time Jesus entered into the boat, and His disciples followed Him. And, behold, a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves; but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him, saying, Lord save us: we perish. And Jesus saith, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying, What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him?

 

The nature, piety, and lawfulness of the worship of the Divine Hands.
(Extracted from the Office of the Divine Hands)

The nature of all devotion, as of every feast, springs from its object and end. The Object is that which is honoured, either as a whole, or as forming a part of a whole, and therefore worthy of the same honour.

The End is that which those who honour propose to themselves: in this case it is the glory of God.

There is a double object in this feast. One Sensible: the material Hands of our Divine Lord; the other Spiritual: all the works of the active zeal and mercy of the same God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The End is to encourage the faithful to have recourse to these Divine Hands in all their necessities, personal as well as general, and particularly for the intentions of our Holy Mother the Church.

What shall I say of the piety and lawfulness of this worship?

The worship of the Divine Hands only proposes that which is right and just, 1st, in the Sensible object, the material Hands of Jesus Christ, as subsisting in the person of the Word, intimately united to Him, and, therefore, adorable with the same latristic worship as the Word.

In the Spiritual object we adore the omnipotent zeal and mercy of Jesus Christ, whose Divine Hands multiplied the loaves in the desert, healed the sick, raised the dead to life, blessed children, performed many other good works.

Thus the End is holy and pious.

Again, this devotion is the completion of the worship of the Sacred Heart; for the reasons which forbid the latter devotion condemn the former also; and because the benefits created by the Divine Hands, such as the multiplication of the loaves, the raising from the dead, and many others, flowed out from the loving, tender Heart of Jesus. Thus the Divine Hands are the symbol of the active zeal, and at the same time of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

No one can say that a new devotion is being proposed. New as to the form and pious practices which it inculcates, but no more new in reality than is the devotion to the Sacred Heart, with regard to the dogma upon which it rests, viz.: that the Humanity of Christ is worthy of adoration in each of its separate parts, on account of its hypostatic union with the Word. What then is to prevent the introduction of new practices of piety, since new feasts may be instituted? This devotion is not, indeed, merely founded on the apparition of the Divine Hands in the heavens, with the sacred stigmata, the Arms furrowed with streams of blood, and rays of light flowing towards the heart of the beholder. This heavenly vision was seen in the north-west of the Heavens, at an early hour, on Monday, 30th of May, 1864, within the octave of Corpus Christi.

Neither is it founded by the distinct words of Christ addressed to the man himself, with the order to institute a feast in honour of His Divine Hands. This is not the foundation upon which the devotion rests, because such a revelation might have been rejected by those who had not seen or heard it. But the true foundation is the same as that upon which the devotion to the Sacred Heart rests, upon the Catholic doctrine of adoration due to the Sacred Humanity of Christ. It must not be said either that this devotion is a useless one, as there are many others which remind us of the Divine Hands, such as the Five Wounds, the Sacred Nails, etc., for no pious practices can be considered superfluous, which animate us to the love and worship of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in these days when His Divinity is so often denied.

Finally, it cannot be said that all these devotions above mentioned have the same end; for the feast of the Five Wounds tends directly towards the worship of the Wounds of Jesus Christ as the symbol of the sufferings which He endured for us in five different parts of His Body, so that the faithful in recalling the memory of those sufferings may be inflamed with the love of Christ.

The feast of the Lance and Nails tends directly to honour even the instruments which inflicted the sufferings of Christ in the five different parts of His Body. Neither is the devotion to the Sacred Heart identical with that of the Divine Hands, as the former tends directly towards the adoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as seat and symbol of the intimate love of our Divine Lord for us, thus drawing us to a return of love and deepest gratitude for such a benefit.

But the feast of the Divine Hands tends directly to the worship of the Holy Hands of Christ as symbol of His active zeal and mercy manifested in the many good works which He performed when on earth, multiplication of the loaves, etc., so that the faithful may be urged on to have recourse to these Divine Hands in all their necessities.

Finally, let it be understood that we do not separate the Hands of Christ from His Body, even mentally.

Ah! if all men knew the efficacy of this devotion, they would adopt it for the greater glory of God and that of our Holy Mother the Church. Amen.

 

OBJECT OF THIS WORSHIP.

1st. — To safeguard our belief in the Divinity of Christ.

2nd. — To defend the rights of the Church and the liberties of the Holy See.

3rd. — As a powerful and efficacious protection against communism and socialism, and against all subversion of order in civil societies.

It is, in a word, the salvation of the Church, of the nation, of families and individuals.

In the midst of the calamities which oppress us, we ought to implore the help of the Divine Hands of Our Blessed Lord, who with them has performed so many miracles to manifest His Divinity and the overwhelming love of His tender Heart.

The following are instances cited in the Gospel, by which the power of those Sacred Hands is manifested:

They touch the leper, and immediately he is cleansed. (S. Matt, viii., 3.)

S. Peter walks on the water, is afraid, and begins to sink, when Jesus stretches forth His Hand, and the Apostle is safe. (Matt, xiv., 31.)

Jesus touches the eyes of the two blind men, and immediately they see. (Matt, xx., 34.)

Jesus touches the hand of S. Peter's mother-in-law, and instantly the fever leaves her. (Matt, viii., 15.)

Jesus imposes His Hands on the woman bowed together with a spirit of infirmity, and immediately she is made straight. (Luke xiii., 13.)

All they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to Him, but He, laying Hands on them healed them. (Luke iv., 40.)

Jesus entering into the house where the damsel was, and taking her by the hand, commanded her to arise, and immediately she rose up and walked. (Mark v., 41.)

And Jesus came near and touched the bier of the Widow's son of Nain, and he that was dead sat up, and He gave him to his mother. (Luke vii., 14)

And they brought Him young children that He might touch them, and Jesus, laying His Hands on them, blessed them. (Mark x., 16.)

The Divine Hands of Jesus multiplied the loaves in the desert (Matt, xv., 36), and S. Augustine explains how he did it in these words: “The power was in the Hands of Christ.” (24 Treatise on S. John.)

This devotion to the Divine Hands once established, its practice in times of trial and calamity will cleanse all spiritual leprosy, give sight to the blind, still the tempest of the soul, calm the fever of passion, strengthen the weak, and finally, by humbling the enemies of the Church, dispel the clouds which obscure her, and thus restore peace, for God's greater glory and the salvation of souls.

Taken from: The Divine Hands of our Saviour, Work of Zeal and Reparation, As a Private Devotion, 1894, Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur.

 

Click here, to view a section dedicated to the Divine Hands.

 

June 20, 2022: St. Silverius, Pope and Martyr.

 

“For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low: and the high he knoweth afar off. If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, thou wilt quicken me: and thou hast stretched forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies: and thy right hand hath saved me. The Lord will repay for me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: O despise not the works of thy hands.”
(Ps, cxxxvii. 6-8)

Divine Hands of Our Saviour, humble the enemies of the Church.

Divine Hands of our Saviour, help us.
Pardon, my God, Pardon.