Prayer Book of St. Julia

[Blue Bear 123]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7C-VXZVSTw

 

Prayer Book of St. Julia

Oremus, sancta Iulia

 

 

Sister Rebecca Vordenburg, SSJP

1958

 

Imprimatur - High Pontiff Sixtus VI - 1959

 

Before you would be a small book bound in thin red leather with a Lorraine’s cross painted on the cover in black ink. Tucked inside the front cover would be a small sheet of paper: “Please enjoy this breviary, courtesy of the Monastery of St. Julia of Paradisus. May it guide you in devotion to our Holy Mother Julia and to God, creator of all the World. God Bless!”

 

Faith

I AM COME, my Lord, in a ready spirit, armed with hope and with love. I look on this Mass as a happy oasis in my life, as a source of refreshment and of vigor, so that with a right heart I may resume my work; so that the burdens which, oft-times, I find beyond bearing may be lightened through Your loving kindness and Your indulgent aid.

How many are the hours I spend without a thought of You, my God; forgetful even of my own soul, but in the grip of alien forces! Keep me mindful of You, and of what I am to You: for to think of one is to think of the other. I pray that these moments which are made holy by being passed in Your Presence, may be a source of faith, of fervor, and of joy.

Take away from me this bitterness which throttles me, this harsh and agonizing dryness which holds me in its grip, this darksome discouragement which broods around me. Cleanse me from secret leanings to sin, from inclinations impelling me to choose what is unworthy, from all the evil that I would not and that yet I do. At the very beginning of this Mass, make me ready to be what You would have me be.

 

Hope

O GOD, my trust in You is boundless. My first word is one of entire confidence in You. I believe in You; in You do I place my trust: it is You alone who are the rock of my being and the fulcrum of my strength. And it is because I am no more in Your sight than a reed, a reed which rests in Your hands, that I know myself to be strong.

Therefore am I glad, glad in you my Lord. There awaits me a renewal of my forces, in which my soul shall come to full growth. By the glad light of this confrontation with You for which I now make ready, my Lord, I beg You to lead me henceforth along the way in which I should go. Guide me by Truth, which is the right hand of Your Love.

 

Love

Munda cor. Cleanse my heart; for Your burning coal has more to do than just to make pure these my faithless lips, hitherto so ready to mouth words of anger or of folly; there are also my ears to be made pure, for they have been over willing to choose the jangling discords of the world above Your Word; they have welcomed the Lie more easily than the Truth; there are my eyes, so slow to open to the light because of their fondness for the things of darkness; there is indeed all my being which waits in need of the purifying fire of Your angel; there is my soul, my judgment, my imagination, and my sinful heart which has betrayed You.

 

Laudate

O gentle Mother, full of grace, 

The joy of Horen, 

The fairest honor of our race, 

More blessed than tongue can tell!

 

All beautiful art thou, Jul’ie,

In thee there is no stain,

Nor grief in thy sweet company,

Consoling all our pain.

 

Delight of angels, Queen of earth,

To thy poor child dost deign,

To whom in sorrow didst give birth,

That with thee she might reign.

 

Pressed to thine Heart Immaculate,

Her frail soul findeth rest

And all its worries there doth quit,

At thy maternal breast.

 

The people thy tender arms protect,

from the iniquity of Saul

guided by divine architect, 

Iblees banished by thou casting call.

 

To thee ’tis not too much to give 

All that she doth possess. 

To have thee truly is to live, 

To serve thee holiness.

 

To all the thorns of earthly loves

How dost thou, friend, compare?

So pure thy gaze, thine eyes are doves,

And thou a lily rare.

 

To know herself beloved by thee

Is worth more than all gold.

Renouncing all, her heart is free

For thee, the hundredfold.

 

 

[Come see the Monastery in person to receive a free copy of the physical book. Donations encouraged.]