Here is an interesting article about the Cathedral of Notre Dame with bits of history, literature , religion and  romance. Enjoy reading . Courtesy of Catholic Life Magazine .

For a young boy, these things look like life size toys that he can play with and he loves them ! A real cool ship he explored from every nook and corner, machine guns, cannons and all kinds of vintage ammunions and navy stuff which he enjoyed looking at and playing with all day. All these at the Navy Open Air Museum. Plus, a real cool navy park with all kinds of sea animals  and plants surviving in sea water which he explored all afternoon! He really had a great time, he kept  re-telling his nice experiences all the way home. Photos below :

Almighty, ever-living God, You raised  to eternal glory the body and soul of the immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Your Son. Grant that our minds may always be directed heavenward and that we may deserve to share in her glory. Amen

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother follows the tradition of recognizing Mary’s death and resurrection.

This holiday has been celebrated for many years by Christians. Some believe the date of August 15 was set to coincide with popular pagan harvest festivals of the time. It wasn’t  for many centuries of popular request , before Pope Pius XII declared Mary’s assumption to be a dogma or a fundamental belief of Catholics. The declaration occurred on November 1, 1950. 

History of the Devotion

Margaret Mary Alacoque entered the Visitation Convent in 1671 and six years later Christ appeared to her in a vision in which “I could plainly see His heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold His heart which so loved humanity. Then He seemed to take my very heart from me and place it there in His heart. In return,  He gave me back part of His flaming heart”. In all , there were four revelations, during which the now familiar Twelve Promises were made, the last of which is responsible for the nine First Friday’s devotion. Also requested by the Sacred Heart was the establishment of a feast in His honor. We now celebrate this Feast of Sacred Heart on the first Friday after the octave of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, in addition to honoring the Sacred Heart every first Friday of the month.

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You, I love You, and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer You this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Your will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen

An Indulgence of 500 Days

(Apostolic Brief, December 4, 1915; S.P. Ap., Nov. 8, 1934)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”    John 6:53-54

Novena for Corpus Christi

O Lord Jesus Christ, You who have given us Your precious Body and Blood to be our meat and drink, grant that through frequent reception of you in the Holy Eucharist, I may be strengthened in mind and body to do Your holy will.  Amen.

History

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist, paralleling Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) commemorating Our Lord’s institution of the Eucharist. Corpus Christi was introduced in the late 13th century to encourage the faithful to give special honor to the institution of the Holy Eucharist to the Blessed Sacrament. The official title of this Solemnity was changed in 1970 to the Body and Blood of Christ and it is still on the Roman Missal’s official Calendar for the universal church on Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

Corpus Christi became a mandatory feast in the Roman Chruch in 1312. But nearly a century earlier, Saint Juliana of Mont Cornilion, promoted a feast to honor the Blessed Sacrament. From early age, Juliana, who became an Augustinian nun in Liege, France, in 1206, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and longed for  a special feast in its honor. She had a vision of the Church under the apprearance of a full moon having one dark spot, which signified the absence of such a solemnity. She made known her ideas to the Bishop of Liege, Robert de Thorete, to the Dominican Hugh who later became  cardinal legate in the Netherlands, and to Jacques Panaleon, at the time Archdeacon of Liege and who later became Pope Urban IV. Bishop Robert de Thorete ordered that the feast be clebrated in his diocese. 

Pope Urban IV later published the Bull Transiturus (September 8, 1264), in which , after having extolled the love of Our Savior as expressed in the Holy Eucharist, ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. More than four decades later, Pope Clement V published a new decree which embodied  Urban IV’s decree and ordered the adoption of the feast at the General Council of Vienna (1311). Pope John XXII , successor of Clement V, urged this observance.

The Corpus Christi Procession

The most important ritual of Corpus Christi is that of the Procession. For this event, the entire village, parish or town assembles in finest dress. The Procession is comprised of clergy, special guilds or groups, and families. Often children in First Communion dress precede the Blessed Sacrament dropping rose or other flower petals to create a carpet for the approaching Eucharist. Altar boys, clergy, prominet citizens  with guild and society banners of silk and others process. The Holy Eucharist is itself transported in a processional Monstrance, carried by a priest or bishop. The Monstrance is further protected  by an embroidered silk canopy held by four posts, borne by parisioners or altar servers. Publicly proclaiming and reaffirming their devotion to the Holy Eucharist, the entire congregation walks around the church and its grounds to the sound of bells and voices singing sacred hymns. The procession then walks and sings its way to the first of the altars. There the Blessed Sacrament rests while the assembled faithful kneel to pray and sing in adoration of theHoly Eucharist. The procession then continous on in the same manner to other altars until finished.

The Jerusalem Cross is also called the Crusader’s Cross. This emblem was sent by Patriarch Thomas of Jerusalem to Charlemagne in the ninth century.

There are five crosses all with equal horizontal and vertical arms: one large and four small, one in each quadrant. Together, they represent Christ’s five wounds and the four corners of the earth.