Site icon The Bellarmine Forum

JUNE 19, 2025 – ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI.

John B. Manos

CORPUS CHRISTI

TILL the thirteenth century the Church had not thought of establishing a special festival in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, being satisfied with celebrating on Holy Thursday the institution of this divine mystery. At that period, however, as heresiarchs dared to attack the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and numerous miracles and special revelations had occurred to concentrate the attention of the Christian world on this dogma, Pope Urban IV decreed, in 1244, that a special feast should be instituted, which, by its solemnity and pomp, should be as a protestation in favor of the unwavering faith of the Church, and should, at the same time, offer an honorable reparation for the blasphemies of impious men. But this pontiff happening to die soon after, the Bull had not all the effect intended, and it was only after the Council of Vienne, held in 1332, that the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, or Corpus Christi, was definitively established throughout the Catholic world. The Holy Council of Trent newly approved in a formal and earnest manner both the worship itself and its attendant pomp. The Feast of Corpus Christi is then a solemn act of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist; and this belief, to which the Church attaches an importance of the highest moment, is the very groundwork of Catholicity, or rather is the very essence of all Christianity; for if Jesus Christ be not present really and corporeally under the elements of bread and wine, as He has Himself formally told us, His word is no longer reliable, He is no longer God, and there remains of religion naught save a beautiful but sterile philosophy, which each one can remodel after his own mind. If it be allowable, as Protestants contend, to interpret, in a purely allegorical sense, words of such clearness that there are not, throughout the whole of the Gospel, any more positive or precise, it is permissible to interpret every thing at will, and the Gospel remains an enigma, the solution whereof is nowhere to be found. It is furthermore the intention of the Church to make an avowal of her love and gratitude to Jesus Christ, and to offer reparation for all the profanations and sacrileges to which this adorable sacrament has been exposed.

REFLECTION: O weakhearted and lukewarm Christians! O ye infidels, unbelievers, and heretics of all ages! “if you did but know the gift of ‘rod, you would perhaps have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water!”

ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI.

JULIANA FALCONIERI was born, in answer to prayer, A.D. 1270. Her father built the splendid church of the Annunziata in Florence, while her uncle, Blessed Alexius, became one of the founders of the Servite Order. Under his care, Juliana grew up, as he said, more like an angel than a human being. Such was her modesty that she never used a mirror or gazed upon the face of a man during her whole life. The mere mention of sin made her shudder and tremble, and once hearing a scandal related she fell into a dead swoon. Her devotion to the sorrows of our Lady drew her to the Servants of Mary; and, at the age of fourteen, she refused an offer of marriage, and received the habit from St. Philip Benizi himself. Her sanctity attracted many novices, for whose direction she was bidden to draw up a rule, and thus with reluctance she became foundress of the “Mantellate.” She was with her children as their servant rather than their mistress, while outside her convent she led a life of apostolic charity, converting sinners, reconciling enemies, and healing the sick by sucking with her own lips their ulcerous sores She was sometimes rapt for whole days in ecstasy, and her prayers saved the Servite Order when it was in danger of being suppressed. She was visited in her last hour by angels in the form of white doves, and Jesus Himself, as a beautiful child, crowned her with a garland of flowers. She wasted away through a disease of the stomach, which prevented her taking food She bore her silent agony with constant cheerfulness, grieving only for the privation of Holy Communion. At last, when, in her seventieth year, she had sunk to the point of death, she begged to be allowed once more to see and adore the Blessed Sacrament. It was brought to her cell, and reverently laid on a corporal, which was placed over her heart. At this moment she expired, and the Sacred Host disappeared. After her death the form of the Host was found stamped upon her heart in the exact spot over which the Blessed Sacrament had been placed. Juliana died A.D. 1340.

REFLECTION: “Meditate often,” says St. Paul of the Cross, “on the sorrows of the Holy Mother, sorrows inseparable from those of her beloved Son. If you seek the Cross, there you will find the Mother; and where the Mother is, there also is the Son.”

WORD OF THE DAY

SOLIPSISM. As a form of extreme subjectivism, the philosophy that holds that only the ego really exists. Everyone and everything else are said to be images of myself. Solipsism is the logical effect of idealism, which teaches that the individual ego produces the existence of thought. In practice solipsism is the attitude of people who care only for themselves. (Etym. Latin solus, alone + ipse, self + ism.)

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

June, Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Sacred Heart of Jesus – Short Meditations for June. June 19 — The Gratitude of the Sacred Heart.


This article, JUNE 19, 2025 – ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/june-19-2025-st-juliana-falconieri/
Do not repost the entire article without written permission. Reasonable excerpts may be reposted so long as it is linked to this page.

Exit mobile version