"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Friday, October 4, 2013

Faith Filled Friday: Let Us Break Bread Together

I love these Negro Spirituals.  "Let Us Break Bread Together" is the third spiritual I've posted in the ten months of this blog.  This particular spiritual is very moving and amazingly Catholic in perspective if you ask me.  I don't really know Jessye Norman, but she has a wonderful soprano voice.




The refrain Norman sings is the most common one:

When I fall on my knees
with my face to the rising sun
O Lord, have mercy on me.

But according to the Wikipedia entry, an alternative refrain is so even more moving, and it's this I want to contemplate for this Faith Filled Friday:



When I fall on my knees,
with my face to the Lord of life,
O Lord, have mercy on me.


6 comments:

  1. Oh yes, Jessye Norman is world renowned! And I do love the verse you found much better. Lovely for this first Friday.

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    1. Oh you know of her. I didn't. May I ask a stupid question? What's the significance of first Friday? Why is that special over the others in the month?

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  2. First Friday is a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as revealed to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. Here are the promises attached to the devotion, also one website with more info. One goes to mass on nine consecutive Fridays, as in a novena, only only in months rather than days.

    1. I WILL GIVE THEM ALL THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR THEIR STATE OF LIFE.
    2. I WILL GIVE PEACE IN THEIR FAMILIES
    3. I WILL CONSOLE THEM IN ALL THEIR TROUBLES.
    4. THEY SHALL FIND IN MY HEART AN ASSURED REFUGE DURING LIFE AND ESPECIALLY AT THE HOUR OF DEATH.
    5. I WILL POUR ABUNDANT BLESSINGS ON ALL THEIR UNDERTAKINGS.
    6. SINNERS SHALL FIND IN MY HEART THE SOURCE AND INFINITE OCEAN OF MERCY.
    7. TEPID SOULS SHALL BECOME FERVENT.
    8. FERVENT SOULS SHALL SPEEDILY RISE TO GREAT PERFECTION.
    9. I WILL BLESS THE HOMES IN WHICH THE IMAGE OF MY SACRED HEART SHALL BE EXPOSED AND HONORED.
    10. I WILL GIVE TO PRIESTS THE POWER TO TOUCH THE MOST HARDENED HEARTS.
    11. THOSE WHO PROPAGATE THIS DEVOTION SHALL HAVE THEIR NAME WRITTEN IN MY HEART, AND IT SHALL NEVER BE EFFACED.

    12. THE ALL-POWERFUL LOVE OF MY HEART WILL GRANT TO ALL THOSE WHO SHALL RECEIVE COMMUNION ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF NINE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS THE GRACE OF FINAL REPENTANCE; THEY SHALL NOT DIE UNDER MY DISPLEASURE, NOR WITHOUT RECEIVING THE SACRAMENTS; MY HEART SHALL BE THEIR ASSURED REFUGE AT THE LAST HOUR.

    This devotion consists in attending Holy Mass and receiving Holy Communion in reparation for those who do not receive Our Lord, who do not love Him and who wound Him by their sinful lives.



    "I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday of nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their Sacraments, My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

    -----Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

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  3. Oh I forgot to say, no questions, especially to learn about our faith are ever stupid. There is so much, none of us will ever stop learning our whole lives!

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  4. Oh of course Kelly, First Fridays comes from Sacred Heart devotion. I knew that. It escaped me. Any idea where St. Margaret Mary got it from, or does it start with her?

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    1. Here is what I found --

      First Friday devotions among Catholics are related to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ. First Friday practices date to the last decades of the 17th century, when Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and spoke to her of His Sacred Heart. Among the promises Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary, the 12th specifically referenced practices for Fridays:
      .

      Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as given to St. Margaret by Jesus, began to grow in popularity as soon as the saintly woman had died, but was officially recognized 75 years later. Though the devotion dictated to Margaret referred to 9 consecutive first Fridays, it does not need to end there. Many of the Catholic faithful continue to make the First Friday devotion beyond the nine consecutive months.

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