{"id":24842,"date":"2009-08-02T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/08\/our-lady-of-the-angels-of-the\/"},"modified":"2016-07-31T13:16:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T17:16:31","slug":"our-lady-of-the-angels-of-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/08\/our-lady-of-the-angels-of-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"OL<\/a><\/span>Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Portiuncula<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, the Virgin under whose mantle Saint Francis of Assisiwas wrapped; Mary’s maternal protection made it possible for blessed Francis to\u00a0experience an intentse Presence of the Lord and to receive his vocation to\u00a0rebuild the Church. The Portiuncula is also the place where Francis knew first\u00a0hand the experience of being sustained by the Angels. Likewise his intimate\u00a0devotion to the Blessed Mother, under whose protection did he place himself to\u00a0do the Lord’s work did this place become holy for the members of the Franciscan\u00a0family and for the Church universal. As a place of pilgrimage, the holy\u00a0Portiuncula<\/span><\/a> is a poignant\u00a0reminder of how important the encounter with Christ was for Saint Francis and how\u00a0much the encounter ought to be pivotal for us today. Without meeting Christ,\u00a0little makes sense. Saint Bonaventure had this to say about this devotion:<\/p>\n

The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin\u00a0Mother of God which was abandoned. Francis had great devotion to the Queen of\u00a0the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there\u00a0constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so\u00a0that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there\u00a0permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ. This is also the place where St Clare took her vows and where Saint Francis died.<\/p>\n

Consider the words of an early biographer of Saint Francis\u00a0of Assisi:<\/p>\n

From there he moved to another place, which is called the\u00a0“Portiuncula,” where there stood a church of the Blessed Virgin\u00a0Mother of God built in ancient times.\u00a0 At that time it was deserted and no\u00a0one was taking care of it.\u00a0 When the holy man of God saw it so ruined, he\u00a0was moved by piety because he had a warm devotion to the Mother of all good and\u00a0he began to stay there continually. The restoration of that church took place\u00a0in the third year of his conversion. At this time he wore a sort of hermit’s\u00a0habit with a leather belt. He carried a staff in his hand and wore shoes. One\u00a0day the gospel was being read in that church about how the Lord sent out his\u00a0disciples to preach. The holy man of God, who was attending there, in order to\u00a0understand better the words of the gospel, humbly begged the priest after\u00a0celebrating the solemnities of the Mass to explain the gospel to him. The\u00a0priest explained it all to him thoroughly line by line.\u00a0 When he heard\u00a0that Christ’s disciples should not possess gold or silver or money, or carry on\u00a0their journey a wallet or a sack, nor bread nor a staff, not to have shoes nor\u00a0two tunics, but that they should preach the kingdom of God and penance, the\u00a0holy man, Francis immediately exulted in the spirit of God. “This is what\u00a0I want,” he said, “this is what I seek, this is what I desire with\u00a0all my heart.” The holy father, overflowing with joy, hastened to\u00a0implement the words of salvation, and did not delay before he devoutly began to\u00a0put into effect what he heard.\u00a0(From The Life of Saint Francis<\/em> by Thomas\u00a0of Celano)<\/p>\n

Read about and perhaps seek The\u00a0Portiuncula Indulgence<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0if you visit any Franciscan Church and\u00a0observe the conditions for receiving the indulgence.<\/p>\n

The Holy Father made reference to this in his Sunday Angelus\u00a0address:<\/p>\n

… today is the feast of the “Pardon of Assisi,”\u00a0which St. Francis obtained from Pope Honorious III in the year 1216, after\u00a0having a vision while he was praying in the little church of the Portiuncula.\u00a0Jesus appeared to him in his glory, with the Virgin Mary on his right and\u00a0surrounded by many Angels. They asked him to express a wish and Francis\u00a0implored a “full and generous pardon” for all those who would visit\u00a0that church who “repented and confessed their sins”. Having received\u00a0papal approval, the Saint did not wait for any written document but hastened to\u00a0Assisi and when he reached the Portiuncula announced the good news:\u00a0“Friends, the Lord wants to have us all in Heaven!”. Since then, from\u00a0noon on 1 August to midnight on the second, it has been possible to obtain, on\u00a0the usual conditions, a Plenary Indulgence, also for the dead, on visiting a\u00a0parish church or a Franciscan one.<\/p>\n

A note about indulgences, which are often\u00a0misunderstood.\u00a0 Indulgences are not forgiveness for sin but forgiveness\u00a0for temporal punishment due to sin; that the residual effects of sin are\u00a0forgiven.<\/p>\n

Also, visit\u00a0The Shrine<\/span><\/a> website (read\u00a0in 3 languages)<\/p>\n

On this feast we pray<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

August Queen of Heaven, sovereign queen of Angels, you who\u00a0at the beginning received from God the power and the mission to crush the head\u00a0of Satan, we beseech you humbly, send your holy legions so that, on your orders\u00a0and by your power, they will track down demons, fight them everywhere, curb\u00a0their audacity and plunge them into the hell.<\/p>\n

Who can be compared to God? Oh good and tender Mother, you\u00a0will always be our love and our hope. Oh divine Mother, send the Holy Angels\u00a0and Archangels to defend me and to keep the cruel enemy far from me. Holy\u00a0Angels and Archangels defend us, protect us. Amen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the\u00a0Portiuncula, the Virgin under whose mantle Saint Francis of Assisiwas wrapped; Mary’s maternal protection made it possible for blessed Francis to\u00a0experience an intentse Presence of the Lord and to receive his vocation to\u00a0rebuild the Church. The Portiuncula is also the place where Francis knew … Continue reading Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,43],"tags":[32088,1773],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24842"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33685,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24842\/revisions\/33685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}