shall lift up his Heart to God and profoundly humbling himself in Spirit and offering up all his Prayers Thoughts and Words to his Glory in Honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary St. Francis Xaverius and to all the Angels and Saints of Heaven he shall make the Sign of the Cross and say the following Prayer O Lord Jesus Christ true God and Man my Creator and Redeemer for thy sake alone and because I love thee above all things I am sorry from the Bottom of my Heart for having offended thee and I do firmly purpose never to fall into Sin again to shun all Occasions of offending thee to Confess my Sins and perform the Penance that shall be enjoyn'd me and to make Restitution and Satisfaction wherever it shall be due from me For the Love of thee I forgive all my Enemies to thee I offer up my Life Actions and Sufferings in Satisfaction for my Sins and since I humbly beg it of thee I trust in thy Goodness and infinite Mercy that thou wilt forgive me them through the Merits of thy precious Blood and Passion and wilt give me Grace to amend my Life and to persever in thy Service unto my Death Amen MOst Glorious St. Francis Xaverius Apostle of the Indies if it be for the Glory of God and to thy Honour that I obtain what I desire and beg by performing this Novena do thou obtain me this Grace of our Lord if not do thou guide my Petition and beg of our Lord for me that which is most proper for his Glory and the benefit of my Soul O God and Lord of the Angels whom thou dost intrust with the Guardianship of Men I make thee an Offering of all the Merits of these Heavenly Spirits and of those of thy Servant St. Francis Xaverius who was call'd an Angel for his Purity and because he preserved Men from many Spiritual and Corporal Dangers I beseech thee grant me that Purity of Soul and Body which thou didst confer on this thy holy Apostle and that particular Grace which I beg in this Novena to thy greater Honour and Glory Amen Here say three Pater Nosters and three Ave Maries and then the following Prayer to St. Francis Xaverius MOst Holy Father Francis Xaverius who receivedst thy Praises from the Mouth of innocent Children I most humbly implore thy bountiful Charity for the Sake of the most precious Blood of Jesus and of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady Mother of God to the end thou may'st obtain of God's infinite Goodness that at the Approach of my last Hour my Heart may be separated and withdrawn from all wordly Thoughts and Distractions and be fixed in the most ardent Love of him and a vehement Desire of an happy Eternity so that laying aside the multiplicity of earthly things which hitherto have perplexed me I may most diligently seek and perfectly find that one thing which is necessary which is to Die and rest in Peace under the Protection of the most Holy Virgin Mary in the Wounds of Jesus her most Blessed Son in the sweet Embraces of my God and in thy Presence Holy Saint through whose Intercession I hope to obtain this Mercy But yet whilst it shall please the Divine Providence to preserve my Life I beseech thee my most loving Protector and most affectionate Father to obtain for me of his Divine Majesty that I may Live â—s one that is to Die and as I would wish to have lived at the Hour of my Death ever imitating thy Virtues and fulfilling the most Holy Will of God that so my temporal Death may be to me a Passage into Life Everlasting I also beseech thee to obtain for me that which I ask in this Novena if it be for the Glory of God and Good of my Soul Amen In the next Place you are to ask of St. Francis Xaverius the particular Favour you desire to obtain heightning as much as in you is your Confidence in him with such Words as your affectionate Thoughts shall suggest or with such Aspirations as your Devotions shall dictate Then the more to please this Holy Apostle in Imitation of him say that Prayer which he himself composed and used to say every Day for the Conversion of Infidels which is as follows ETernal God Creator of all things remember that thou alone didst create the Souls of Infidels framing them to thy own Image and Likeness Behold O Lord how to thy Dishonour Hell daily is replenished with them Remember O Lord thy only Son Jesus Christ who suffered for them most bountifully shedding his precious Blood Suffer not O Lord thy Son and our Lord to be any longer despised by the Infidels but rather being appeased by the Intreaties and Prayers of thy Elect the Saints and of the Church the most Blessed Spouse of thy Son vouchsafe to be mindful of thy Mercy and forgeting their Idolatry and Infidelity cause them also to know him thou didst send Jesus Christ thy Son and our Lord who is our Health Life and Resurrection through whom we are made free and saved to whom be all Glory forever â—â—en Then conclude with the Prayer proper to this Saint Antiph Well fare thee good and faithful Servant because thou hast been faithful over a few things I will place the over many things Enter into the Joy of thy Lord. Vers Our Lord hath guided the just Man by right Ways Resp And hath shewed him the Kingdom of God The Prayer O God who wert pleased to reduce to the Bosom of thy Church the Nations of the Indies thro' the Preaching and Miracles of S. Francis Xaverius mercifully grant us that we may imitate his Vertues whose glorious Merits we hold in Veneration Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Commemoration of St. Ignatius de Loyola Antiph This man despising the World and triumphing over Earthly things heaped up Riches in Heaven by Word and Work Vers Our Lord hath guided the just Man by right Ways Resp And hath shewn him the Kingdom of God The Prayer O God who for the Propagation of the greater Glory of thy Name hast by Blessed Ignatius strengthen'd the Church Militant with new Auxiliaries graciously vouchsafe that we by his Assistance and Imitation solicitously combating upon Earth may obtain with him an everlasting Crown in Heaven A Commemoration of St. Gregory the Great Apostle of England Antiph O most excellent Doctor Light of the Holy Church Blessed Gregory Lover of God's Law supplicate the Son of God for us Vers Our Lord hath as above The Prayer O God who hast bestowed the Rewards of Eternal Blessedness on the Soul of thy Servant Gregory Grant mercifully that we who are deprest with the Weight of our Sins may by his Prayers be delivered Through our Lord. The Second Day Lord Jesus Christ true God and Man c. as before on the First Day Most Glorious St. Francis Xaverius c. as the First Day and so on all the following Days A Prayer for this
Altar or Picture of the Saint or where else most convenient must also say Ten Pater Nosters and Ten Ave Maria's and Ten Gloria Patri's c. offering to God the Merits of this Saint to obtain the Favour he desires In this two things are to be observed The First is That before one applies himself to this Devotion he must purifie his Intention concerning the Favour he petitions be it Temporal or Spiritual pretending nothing else but the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul for seeing this was the only Aim of this Saint whilst he lived in this World so it will be a more efficacious means now in Heaven to move him to favour us with his Intercession to his Divine Majesty to obtain us our Request The Second is That none of these Devotions omitted either in part or whole have any Obligation even of a venial Sin so that you may continue them or no when begun without any scruple and if Business permits you not to perform Ten Fridays in order go on with them at your leisure Friday is assigned in Memory of the Saint's dying on that Day in the Island of Sanciano The Number is in Honour of the Ten Years he laboured in the Indies for God's greater Honour and the Good of Souls and the same is to be understood of the ten Pater's and Aves and Gloria Patri's To the end this Devotion may have more Fruit and promote the Exercise of some Vertue some Considerations are here set down taken out of the Life of the Saint one for every Friday which is to be read on that Day by those that practise this Devotion stirring themselves up to a lively Imitation of the Saint To every Consideration there is annexed a Colloquy in form of a Prayer begging of the Saint some Spiritual Grace suitable to the foregoing Consideration and profitable for the good of their Souls wherein with a little Labour they may spend their time with much Profit The CONSIDERATION For the First FRIDAY Upon the singular Purity of Mind and Body of St. Francis Xaverius BY Purity of Mind is not only understood Innocency of Life but also a right Intention of doing all our Actions purely for the Glory of God and for no other end How great was this Purity in St. Francis The sole Aim of his immense Labours was the Glory of God not seeking any thing else either in his Voyages by the most dangerous Seas of Europe Asia and Africa or Journeys by Land I may say through both Worlds or in his most troublesome Preaching but that God should be known praised and glorified In a word all he suffered which as Francis Mansilla a great while Companion to the aint said is not to be conceived how much it was was only for the Glory of God never regarding any the least private Interest The Reward of his Labours was a most sublime degree of Sanctity which he arrived unto whereby afterwards he deserved such a Glory in Heaven and received so many Favours here on Earth And our Saviour to shew how pleasing his Labours were to him wrought that continual Miracle that in his Father's House a Crucifix sweat Blood every time the Saint was in any difficult Enterprize or Suffering Examin your self Devout Soul and see what Intention you have in all your Actions if to please God only or else for some other private Interest If the first give God thanks and stir your self up to Perseverance If the second be sorry and purpose an Amendment But by Purity of Body is chiefly understood the Vertue of Chastity which retrenches all sensual unlawful Pleasures He excelled so much in this Vertue that as long as he lived he preserved the Lilly of his Virginity unstained and therefore is generally painted with one And which is yet more to be admired he preserved it most pure even living in the World amongst the Delights and Enticements of his own House in the Heat of his young blood and Liberty of the Students of the University of Paris where he lived and even in the most licentious and loose Manners of the Mahometans and Gentils with whom he conversed so many Years God rewarded this his Angelical Purity with the Incorruption of his Body after his Death and with infinite other Miracles For George Alvarez having buried it in quick Lime that he might the easier carry his Bones from Sanciano the Island where he died to God after three Months found it as entire as if newly buried and which is more the body being cut bled as fresh as if alive This Miracle extended it self also to his Cloaths which were preserved from receiving any Harm from the Lime which naturally would have consumed both The Body also sent out a most fragrant Odour far surpassing any in this World The carrying the body through Malaca freed it from a most desperate and infectious Plague And when it was brought to God the Miracle of its Incorruption did no less continue for several times it bled afresh and even to this day being now above a hundred Years ceases not the Body being as incorrupt as ever Every one may easily see how he behaveth himself in this Vertue according to his State and Condition The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain Purity of Body and Soul MOst Glorious Apostle of the East most pure in Body and Soul I a most miserable Creature with all Humility have recourse to you begging you would by your Intercession obtain for me such a pure Intention in all my Actions that I may never aim therein at any thing else but the greater Glory of God and such a pure Chastity that neither in Thought much less in Word or Deed I may ever displease the most pure Eyes of our good God Amen Through the Intercession of St. Francis Xaverius God grant me Purity of Mind and Body The CONSIDERATION For the Second FRIDAY Upon the profound Humility of St. Francis Xaverius ACcording to St. Bernard Humility is a Contempt of ones own Worth according to St. Thomas it is a Vertue whereby a man knowing his own Defects and Imperfections keeps himself within his own Bounds in a low Degree St. Francis pracrtised this Vertue in a most perfect manner towards all sorts of Persons For tho' he was born of the Race of the Kings of Navarre by Office Nuncius Apostolicus and besides endowed with most rare Talents of Nature and Learning yet he humbled himself below all whenever it was for the greater Glory of God He writ to St. Ignatius his Superior always upon his Knees He answered a Friend of his who examined him concerning a dead Child he had raised in the Coast of Comorino with all Humility as it were confounded I raise the Dead to Life And can you believe such a thing of me such a great Sinner as I am In a word all his Life is full of Examples of his most profound Humility and was held for such over all Spain Italy
elevated a Cubit from the Ground with his Face surrounded with Rays and his Eyes sparkling like Stars Many Eye-witnesses attested that at Mass and Communion in Malaca and Meliapor he was several times seen quite alienated from his Senses and elevated in the Air. These are some Tokens of those Divine Consolations this Angel of Heaven enjoyed here upon Earth in Reward of the Sufferings he undertook for the Love of God What have we now to say for our selves miserable and tender Creatures that so much shun all occasions of suffering even when our state of life and condition require it How ignorant are we of the true good It is no wonder divine consolations are so scarce with us since we fly all Trouble and Difficulties that might else in some manner deserve and draw down those Favours upon us The COLLOQUY To St Francis Xaverius To obtain a desire of Penance and Mortification O Most Mortified Apostle Behold at your Feet the greatest Sinner of the World and yet the most delicate the most deserving of Penance and yet the greatest shunner of it who Implores your Help that he may begin to love that once which he ought always to perform and thereby satisfy God for his Sins You O Dear Saint Most Innocent and yet so generous an Embracer of Austerity obtain for me of my suffering Saviour your Spirit that I may set my Affection more thereon and thereby diminishing the pains of Purgatory due to my Sins I may the sooner come to enjoy with you the Beatifical Vision Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Fourth FRIDAY Upon the Patience of St. Francis Xaverius PAtience is a Vertue that Strengthens our Mind against all Difficulties that might otherwise deter us from our Duty This Holy Apostle was so abundantly Endowed with this Vertue that he might justly say with St. Paul * 2 Cor. 6.4 Let us exhibit our selves as the Ministers of God in much Patience Truly it was very necessary in those his long and most Troublesome Sicknesses as when Destitute of all Human Comfort he was obliged in Vicenza to lye in the same Bed with a most filthy and loathsome Sick man and in his Journey from Amangucci to Meaco to live only upon Water and Burnt Rice and in the Island of Sanciano to dye totally abandoned by all Yet these inconveniences were nothing to those he suffered in changing so often to so contrary Climats from one excess to another accommodating himself to the Barbarous Incivilities of People so different from the Europeans in Life and Manners In the Excessive Heats of the Torrid Zone in the Incommodities of Sea Voyages in Tempests and Dangers of Shipwrack What shall I say of Persecutions from Men and Devils He was often in the Publick Market-places laught at by the People sought for to Death by the Gentiles and Bonzi their Priests as a Destroyer of their Idols and Gods most Shamefully and Unhumanly reviled by Governours of Towns and Countries Captains of Ships Soldiers and Seamen and even by Christians amongst whom some bad are always to be found utterly hated as a reformer of their manners and wicked Lives finally left and betray'd most ungratefully by those he had been most Beneficial unto The Devils also set upon him divers times and once beat him most unmercifully in Meliapor as he prayed all Night at the Tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle and they always Persecuted him as their Sworn and most Bitter Enemy Yet what did St. Francis do What would you a most Delicate Nice and Cowardly Creature have done Quitted what you had undertaken fainted and yeilded at the first seeming Difficulty and fled back No no quite contrary he like an undaunted Soldier not the least struck with these Oppositions stood his Ground and Faithfully Discharged himself of his Apostolical Duty and Commission witness his Journeys in his Ten Years amounting to an hundred Thousand Miles equivalent to almost five times the whole Circumference of the Earth wherein he abolish'd innumerable Superstitions Rooted out many Abuses Corrected many Wicked and Inveterate Manners threw down Idols Converted Innumerable Souls and Baptized with his own Hand above a Million and Two Hundred Thousand Persons Worthy Fruits indeed of the invincible Patience of St. Xaverius But what do I miserable Creature How do I bear even the least things that happen daily How ought I to be asham'd that have not the Heart to Suffer the least Word Check or Cross Answer from another which makes me so often neglect my Duty to God and fail so frequently in the Employment I am in I am truly Confounded seeing with how little Patience I might so much Promote God's Glory and that failing in the first I am so Notoriously Deficient in the Latter The COLLOQUY To St Francis Xaverius To obtain the Vertue of Patience YOU see most Patient Apostle the baseness of my Heart so streight and narrow as not to dare to open it-self to receive the least Cross or Adversity but presently it yields and Faints Yet my Crosses are not like yours which were so hard and Painful but slight Troubles and small Difficulties and yet I am most impatient in all occurrences O most Patient Xaverius Obtain of the Divine Goodness for me your Spirit of Patience that manfully resisting all Difficulties annexed to my State and Condition I may Faithfully comply with God's Holy Will Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Fifth FRIDAY Upon the Continual Prayer of St. Francis Xaverius PRayer is an act of Religion whereby we have recourse to God begging what is fit we should ask of him St. John Damascen calls it an ascent of our Minds to God whereby we treat and Converse with him St. Francis's Prayer was continual fulfilling that * St. Luc. 18.1 It behoveth always to Pray and never to cease And that of the Apostle * Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven Altho' he was always United to God yet he had some particular times alotted for it spending the Night chiefly in continual Prayer and Contemplation never allowing himself above two or three Hours for natural Rest On Ship-board for Prayer he prefixed from Midnight till Morning whereupon the Seamen used to say the Ship Sails securely seeing Father Francis stands Sentinel In Manapar he was at several Hours in the Night observed by his Host and sound always upon his Knees at the Foot of a Crucifix But what sort of Prayer was it Worthy indeed of that Seraphical Heart all Burning and set on Fire and carrying him to his only Center God In so much that many Confessed they could not look him in the Face even in Familiar Conversation amongst them his Countenance so Dazled their Eyes His short tho' most Inflamed Jaculatory Aspirations give us sufficiently to understand what Fire Consumed his most Ardent and loving Soul having been often heard to say even in his Sleep and Raging Sickness and commonly in Latin O Sanctissima Trinitas O mi Jesu O Dulcis Jesu O Jesu cordis mei
all Creatures HEre are Devout Reader two Considerations the first to be imitated the second to be admired yet both very profitable for you for whether you imitate or admire Saint Xaverius you may assure your self of his Protection and Intercession The first is his Love of God the second his Power over all Creatures As for the first what do you think Devout Client of St. Francis of the Love he bore to God His whole Life is a sufficient Proof thereof according to that great Saying Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Deeds are the Marks of Love But yet to give you some more particular Signs thereof here are some few Reflections no less true than wonderful This Love of God did so enflame his Heart and set it all on fire that he was not able to suffer it's insupportable Heat nor scarce endure his Cloaths Once as he was walking in the Streets of Goa he was so totally absorped with the Love of God that he took no notice of an Elephant that broke loose and threatned Death to all it met but yet afterwards to the great Wonder of all it retired The like happened to him going from Amangucci to Meaco when he run like a Servant behind a Noblemans Horse never feeling the Thorns that continually tore his Feet so much was his Mind absorpt in the Abyss of the Love of God Every where he was out of himself and totally in God But above all in Prayer Mass and Thanksgiving after the Divine Sacrifice His Soul betrayed it self so clearly in his very Countenance that the Pope said of him that he was Vultu adco inflammatus ut Angelicam prorsus Charitatem repraesentaret Seeming rather a burning Seraphim and a blessed Spirit upon Earth than a Man What say you pious Reader you do wonder and admire him and I am comforted thereat because hereby you may frame some Conceit of the great Love St. Xaverius bore to God But why do not you endeavour also to love the same God For he is the same he was then ever deserving to be beloved above all things Created and should you not love him you would always prove the most miserable Creature in the World for not placing your Affection upon a God that is so worthy of Love seeing to Love him is the sole happiness of Man As for the second Point proposed in the beginning God even in this Life seemed to reward his Saint with an universal Power and Dominion over all Creatures The Heaven saw the Day encreased three Hours by the Prayers of this second Josue that the Christians might give a total Overthrow to the Infidels The Earth rent it self with most horrid Earthquakes to frighten the Citizens of Tolo to the Christian Faith which they had so shamefully forsaken the Air bore him up from the Ground several times both by Night and Day The Fire raging and threatning several Houses obey'd his Command and offered not to pass the Limits prescrib'd by St. Xaverius But the Water seem'd to acknowledge most of all his Power He was an Anchor to Ships in the greatest Storms a favourable Gale to carry them thro' the most dangerous Shallows and Sands of the Seas a Calm allaying Tempests and a Haven for those that suffered Shipwrack The very Idolaters called him the God of the Sea and spared no charge for themselves and their Goods to sail in the Ship Saint Xaverius went in In the Indies he often changed Salt Water into Fresh and once by only dipping his Foot into the Sea He allayed tempests sometimes by Prayer other times with Relicks he wore or with the Sign of the Cross and once by letting his Cross into the Water which God to double the Wonder permitted a Wave to snatch away and so bereft him of his oâ—â—â— Comfort when behold soon after a Lobster with open Claws above Water brought it to St. Francis again It is impossible to specifie every particular Miracle wrought in this kind by St. Francis let these few in short suffice to convince you that in this Glorious Saint you have a Patron ready to command all Creatures for your Good so that in all Occasions and Necessities you may have recourse to him with Confidence and hope in his most powerful Intercession and Assistance The COLLOQUY To St. Francis Xaverius To obtain the Holy love of God WHat did you aim at throughout the whole course of your life O Holy Apostle but to bring all the World to the love of God And now will you not O great lover of God! obtain for me a poor helpless creature an ardent desire of loving him above all things Ah! I doubt not of your help and intercession but I apprehend my own Weakness least permitting my self to be deceived by the foolish Love of Creatures I may swerve from the true love of my Creator Help me then O Holy St. Francis That I may not be so deluded but yielding up my will to God I may by a holy necessity always love him both in this life and in the next Amen The CONSIDERATION For the Eighth FRIDAY Upon the Love of St. Francis Xaverius towards his Neighbour HE that truly loveth God does extend his Affection also to his Neighbour as being dear to God and his lively Image So that Saint Xaverius loving God as you have seen ought consequently to love his Neighbor which he did in the perfectest manner he could fulfilling those Words of St. Paul * Omnibus omnia 1 Cor. 9.22 factus to all men becoming all things that he might save all * 2 Cor. 6.6 In Charitate non ficta sed verà In true not feigned Charity He never spared any Labours Troubles Difficulties nor even Life it self to benefit him either in his Temporal or Spiritual Necessities tho' he laboured most to succour the Soul as being the more noble Part. The only Aim and Design of his Apostolical Missions and hard Enterprizes was the Salvation of Souls and where he proposed to himself any Hopes of converting any to God he let slip nothing that might any way promote or further his Intentions With Children he was one always so concerned for their Spiritual Profit that tho' he was a Man of that Authority and Esteem yet he disdained not to go about with a little Bell exhorting Parents to send their Children to be instructed in the Christian Doctrine With Sinners he became as I may say a Sinner familiarly treating and conversing with them that so he might bring them to God for pretending to be ignorant of their Vices Blasphemies Murders Usuries and all their whole Life he changed the Hatred they bore him into Love and the Love they bore to all vicious Habits and Propensions into a detestable Hatred of Sin To Infidels as particularly recommended to him from Heaven he shew'd such Charity that no body can express it And if the Height of this according to the Oracle of Truth it self be to give his Life for his Beloved