A form of great persuasive virtue to obtain the divine will and to win from it what is desired is to pray the Trisagio. It seems that during a period of great geologic and meteorologic commotions experienced in Constantinople in the year 447 (Trisagio Seráfico, Manila, 1889, p. 7), it happened that “a child of tender age was carried to the winds, all those encamped being eye witnesses, until he could be seen no more. After a long time he returned to earth in the same manner that he went up and stated in the presence of the Patriarch, of the Emperor, and of the wondering multitude, that he heard the angels sing this concert: ‘Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us.’ (Santo Dios, santo fuerte, santo inmortal, tened misericordia de nosotros.)” The child immediately thereafter died. The Emperor ordered that all should repeat this sacred canticle and that moment the earthquakes ceased and the meteorological disturbances stopped. Hence, “the use of the Trisagio as a form for invoking the Holy Trinity in dangerous fatal times” (p. 78). Among other things the following is tacitly asked in the Trisagio: “Of thy ire and anger, Lord and triune free us. Of the snares, nearness of the demon; of all ire, hate and bad will; of all plagues or epidemics, hunger, storms; of our enemies and their machinations free us” (pp. 20–21).
Reminders of Cannibalism
Altho the Trinity is composed, as everybody knows, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in the Trisagio the three persons are invoked and asked at the same time, nevertheless there are other forms of securing the divine favor, invoking separately only one of the persons of the Trinity. Thus in the Novena of Jesus Sacramentado, the Father is asked by means of the intercession of the Son, or in other words, by only a viscera of the Son or an organ of his body, the heart, or more properly the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “The eternal Father has complacency,” says the Novena (p. 6), “in that it is asked in the name of the Heart of his beloved Son * * *.” “The Father Eternal said so directly to the venerable Mary of the incarnation” (pp. 6–7). “Ask me thru the heart of my only begotten Son, and thru it I shall hear thee and thou shalt obtain all that thou wouldst ask * * *.” Jesus said to his wife Margaret (esposa Margarita): “I ask you that on Friday immediately before the Corpus festivity, you particularly devote yourself to the worship of my heart” (p. 7).
The adoration of the heart is not symbolic; it is the real heart that is adored: “they shall adore with greater frequency, to Jesus transsubtantiated, and in him, to his Divine Heart” (p. 7). “His Novena will be made before an image of Jesus or to His Sacred Heart” (p. 10). The devout one, carrying his adoration almost to a point of the revival of atavic cannibalism, says to Jesus: “O, thou owner of mine! Give me thine body and with it thine heart that I may eat it!” (para que le coma) (p. 12).
There is a Novena dedicated to Saint Angel Custodio (Manila, 1897), who is the “Angel delegated by God to be at our side, and exercise with us the loving offices of a careful tutor, a loving governor, a loving preceptor, a faithful conductor, and an intimate and true friend * * *” (p. 6). “No saint in heaven interests himself more in our soul and in our business than the holy Guardian Angel” (p. 6). His intervention is so useful and “he not only transmits what is asked but modifies our petitions when he knows that some of our petitions might bring us some spiritual or corporal evil” (p. 7). “It is therefore the best guarantee against any error of ours, and naturally it makes a sense of responsibility absolutely useless.”
Second Christ
Saint Domingo de Guzman is one of the most powerful lawyers in heaven. In his Novena (Manila, 1913), he is called the precursor of Christ, altho in reality he came to the world twelve centuries after Christ (p. 5). “In the chastity, color, and figure of his body, and in the eloquence of his spirit, he was the one most like Christ” (p. 7). He was very celebrated in all manners of prodigies and miracles, both on earth and in heaven, among men as well as among beasts, among the living as well as the dead” (p. 9). One day Virgin Mary appeared to him and “holding him by the hand said to him that she loved him so tenderly, that if the Divine Lady were a mortal, she would not be able to live except in his presence, and would have died by the violence of the great love that she had for him * * *” (p. 10). Later Virgin Mary, not satisfied with such erotic manifestations, married him (le desposó consigo) in the presence of her husband Christ (esposo de Cristo), and of many blessed ones in heaven” (pp. 11–12), resulting that Jesus, besides being the son of Mary, is also her husband, so that with Saint Joseph, Saint Domingo was the third husband of Mary. The Eternal Father communicated to Saint Catalina de Sena that Christ and Domingo were his two special sons * * *.” Christ proceeded from the mouth of the Eternal Father, staying at his right, and Saint Domingo proceeded from the breast of the same Eternal Father, at his right on his feet in glory” (p. 15). With such antecedents one can readily understand how “Christ promised to concede to him all that he would ask on behalf of his devotees” (p. 15), so that the power of the Saints is unlimited. In verse it is said of him:—
You can do everything in heaven
being husband of Mary;
Who so confides in thee (Domingo)