Fridays, and Faith, Hope, and Charity

[Shin]

Today being Friday it's also the day when the infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity are granted in greater amount as a gift from Our Lord to those who wear the Red Scapular of the Passion of Christ. And too, the Five-Fold Scapular, which contains this scapular.

Our Lord told Sister Apolline that He longed for consideration of His sufferings and that His mother desired the same. Our Lady told her "The world is hurrying to its perdition, because it considers not the Passion of Christ. . . "Do all you can to bring and consider His sufferings. Do all you can to save the world!"

"All those who wear this scapular shall receive every Friday an increase of faith, hope, and charity." - Words of Our Lord to Sister Apolline.

From noon to three o'clock. . That is the time to most recall the Passion of Our Lord.

 

[Patricia]

Thanks. I didn't know that.

[Shin]

There's a rare book on Sister Apolline that hopefully we may acquire someday for Saints' Books, I might add, published by Benziger Brothers in 1897 A.D.

I would like to learn more about the sister.

Bl. Pope Pius IX approved of this devotion. I read in an old paper:

"M. Etienne, the Superior General, took little notice at first of Sister Apolline's frequent and earnest declarations that it was the will of our Lord that he should obtain the approval of the Church for the Scapular of the Passion. He doubted neither the piety nor the good sense of the holy Sister, but he feared to encounter the difficulties and delays which wisely oppose the introduction of every new form of devotion. On her part, Sister Apolline made very light of these, and assured M. Etienne that since our Redeemer desired the introduction of this scapular, He would in His own good time remove all obstacles. In the Summer of the year 1847, M. Etienne found himself in Rome on business connected with the Congregation over which he presided, and taking advantage of a special audience with the Holy Father, he mentioned Sister Apolline's visions, and her oft repeated statement that our Lord desired the approval of the new scapular. To the Reverend Father's surprise, Pius IX., so far from objecting to the new devotion gave it his hearty approval, and on the 25th June of the same year (1847), the Holy Father issued a Rescript, by which he formally established the new devotion, and granted to the Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission, and to all the priests of the same Congregation, faculties to bless the Scapular of the Passion of our Lord ,and of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and distribute it to the faithful."

[Shin]

Further details, found from one source, after some searching. . .

"One Sunday evening, I was making the Stations of the Cross," said the nun, "when at the Thirteenth Station, it seemed to me that Our Blessed Lady placed the Body of our Divine Lord in my arms, saying as she did so, 'The world is drawing down ruin upon itself because it never thinks of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Do your utmost to bring it to meditate thereon, to bring about its salvation."

On one occasion she testified in letters to her spiritual director that the pallor of Christ's countenance was so startling "that it threw me into a cold sweat. Our Lord's Head was bent forward. I thought that the long thorns that encircled His sacred Brow had induced this painful posture."

. . . Sister Apolline testified that on the eve of the octave of St. Vincent's feast, July 26, 1846, she saw Our Blessed Lord:

"clad in a long red robe and blue mantle. Oh! Love of Jesus Christ, how You filled my heart at that moment! Oh! How beautiful He was! It was no longer the painful expression, the sorrowful face worn with suffering that I had seen in Pilate's hall a few days before during Mass. It was beauty itself! In his right Hand He held a scapular upon which was a crucifix surrounded by those instruments of the Passion which caused His Sacred Humanity to suffer most. I read around the crucifix: 'Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, protect us.' At the other end of the red woolen braid was a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, the one surrounded with thorns, the other pierced by a lance, and both surrounded by a cross."

. . . According to the Red Scapular revelations -- set out in a series of 51 letters to Father Etienne -- the most cruel aspect of Christ's Passion was His interior sufferings.

"I am convinced that by the consideration of the Passion of Christ we shall obtain the conversion of sinners and strengthen the faith of the just," wrote Sister Apolline. "Who can resist a God dying for love of man! Our Lord has always loaded me with His greatest favors at moments when He filled my heart with the most lively remembrance of His sufferings."

She further quoted Jesus as saying: "Contemplate me on the Cross, and see if I deserve thy love. Thou shalt understand My Love only by my sufferings!"

Sister Apolline said that on the Feast of the Blessed Trinity in 1846 she was shown a beautiful river that caused all who plunged in it to shine with extraordinary light, with "sheaves of diamonds and gold" coming from them. Those who turned away from the waters, on the other hand, "were covered with a dark vapor." The river represented Christ's mercy.

She also said, "The Sacred Heart of Our Lord opened with Calvary is the inexhaustible fountain of all graces," said the nun. "The reservoir that receives them, that communicates them to mankind, is the Immaculate Heart of Mary."