God does not ask merely for another place in his children’s heart, soul, and mind, alongside other loves. Rather he seeks all our love, not a bit of attention or a tad of devotion.
God seeks our entire being, without measure or end. He is a “jealous lover”, begging for all our desire. He awaits our giving him all we have, following the personal vocation wherewith he called us one day and keeps on calling us every day amid duties and circumstances, pleasant or less so, that befall us.
God has a right to ask us: 'Are you thinking of me? Are you aware of me? Do you look to me as your shield, as your all?'
“Renew then this resolution: In times the world calls good I will cry out: ‘Lord!’ In times it calls bad, again I will cry: ‘Lord!'” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 506)
Each circumstance is a chance to love him wholeheartedly, with one’s entire soul and existence, not only when we go to church to visit him or receive communion; but also at work, in the face of suffering and failure, when unexpected good news reaches us.
Then, let us say to him in our soul’s depths: ‘Father of mine, I love you, I will peaceably accept this annoyance for your sake, I will bring this chore to a full close, done just right, because I know it pleases you ...’
We are also bound to love our Father God with our heart of flesh, affectionately, with the only heart we possess. Both human and supernatural is the love we contemplate in God’s Son.
Jesus is full of warmth, interest, and tenderness when we turn to his heavenly Father and when he converses with us. He is moved by a widow mourning the loss of her only son; he cries over a friend who has died; he appreciates the gratefulness of lepers who have been cured; he is always cordial and open to all, even amid the excruciating yet sublime stages of his passion ...
God’s children need to remind themselves often that Christian life consists not “in much thinking, but in much loving”. (St Theresa of Avila, “Interior Castle”, 4:1-7)
Ref: Francis Fernandez-Carvajal and Peter Beteta, “Children of God”, 1997, p41
The Merciful Mother
Unfortunately, because of our weak and corrupted nature, we are all sinners. Fortunately, however, most of us hate sin; and do not want to continue living in sin, do not intend to offend God deliberately. Thus, we pray God, continuously, to deliver us from sin; and ask Our Lady to protect us from sin, and pray for us sinners.
Many sinners do not have the will to stop sinning; and because of their numerous and serious sins, can not muster the strength to get out of their miserable condition. They lack the courage to take the remedies which will help them, and so they fall into despair. Mary knows that God does not want the death of the sinner.
Thus, Mary wants to cooperate with God in every way possible, in saving sinners. She wants to be called the 'Merciful Mother'. Mary gave us Jesus, who was to deliver us from sin and Satan. Mary sees in us souls that have been redeemed by the death of her Son.
‘Who’, exclaims St Antoninus, ‘can ever form an idea of the tender care that this loving mother takes of all of us, offering and dispensing her mercy to every one?’
Our good and heavenly Mother desires the salvation especially of the sinners. ‘It is evident’, says St Bernard, ‘that she was solicitous for the whole human race’.
Mary even anticipates the need of whoever seek her. ‘The love that this good Mother bears us is so great’, says Richard of St Lawrence, ‘as soon as she perceives our want she comes to our assistance. She comes before she is called.’
Sinners, have no fear! Go to the 'Refuge of sinners' if your own sinfulness tends to crush you; if you are concerned about your family. Pray often and confidently: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p30
· “Just as the devil always goes in search for someone to devour, so Mary is always looking for someone she can help in any way.” -- Pope St Leo the Great (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, op cit)
‘Mother most admirable. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- The greatness and immensity of God
Greatness commands respect, and respect is a part of the homage we owe to God. The Holy Scriptures are filled with the idea of the infinite greatness of God. “Of His greatness there is no end", writes King David.
To form some idea of His greatness, recall that our world is but one of a vast system of planets. Its circumference of 27,000 miles could be completely traversed in 30 months at the rate of 30 miles a day.
The sun, being nearly three million miles in circumference, could be traversed at the same rate of speed in 274 years. Yet this sun is supposed to be infinitely inferior to certain of the fixed stars. All this greatness, relative to God’s, is as a grain of sand to a mountain!
To form some idea of the greatness and immensity of God, again call to mind the sun which is at least 95 million miles away. Such a vast space; but there are planets 20 times further away from us than the sun.
Their distance is nothing compared to that of the fixed stars. The light of some of these stars, astronomers believe, has not yet reached us, though it has been travelling at the rate of 12 million miles a minute since the creation of the world.
And each of these stars is the center of a planetary system vastly greater than our own. But what are the millions of worlds, that surpass calculation or even conception, compared to God? The wise man answers, “As the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew that falls upon the earth”.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp791-3
Dazzled
30 “Marvel at God’s magnanimity: he has become Man to redeem us, so that you and I -- who are absolutely worthless, admit it! -- may come to know him and trust him.”
33 “What are you so proud of? Every impulse that moves you comes from Him. Act accordingly.”
Ref: cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”
Octave of the Conception of Our Lady, instituted by Pope Sixtus IV. — Bullarium. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Octave of the Immaculate Conception. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of the Armed Forces. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html);(www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
14 December 2010: Refuge of sinners
The greatest good that we can do to our friends
Taking them to the Sacrament of Penance. “Arouse our hearts, Lord, to make the way for your Son. Despite all our sins, let your merciful grace hasten the work of our redemption.” (“Prayer”, Mass for Thursday in the First Week of Advent) This prayer speaks of proclaiming the coming of Jesus by asking pardon for sins.
The Messiah is very close to us. During these days of Advent we must be ready to receive him in a new way on Christmas day. Jesus says in a special way, “Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees; and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage do not be afraid!’” (cf Is 35:3-4)
Daily we meet friends, relatives who have lost what is most essential to their life; and feel hopeless. Unable to go to Our Lord, we must show them the way to the cave in Bethlehem. There they will find the meaning of their lives. We must know the way by having an interior life; and strive to improve in the very things our friends need to do better.
‘Our hope in the supernatural means must be firm.’ Usually, bringing our friends closer to Christ means taking them to receive the sacrament of Penance, one of the greatest treasures Our Lord has left to his Church. A great way to help is making it easy for them to go to Confession.
Sometimes we will have to help them, with tact and kindness, make a good examination of conscience. Or accompany them to the place where confessions are being heard. At other times, an encouraging word and affection will suffice with a brief instruction about the nature and value of the sacrament.
What joy each time we get a relative, a colleague, a friend, to receive the sacrament of divine mercy! This same joy is shared in heaven by our Father God and by all the blessed. (cf Lk 15:7) Our Mother Mary will have compassion on them, and on us.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:65-6, 70-71
‘Refuge of sinners. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- The providence, justice, and mercy of God
When we call God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, we acknowledge His providence: care for all His creatures, man most particularly, made in His own image; and for a supernatural end. No earthly father could be indifferent to his children’s welfare.
Holy Scripture thus speaks of God’s paternal tenderness: “Behold, I have graven thee in My hands; thy walls always before My eyes. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.”
The justice and mercy of God are not contradictory. One, a necessary consequence of His sanctity which obliges him to punish sin and reward virtue. The other, consequent to his goodness which we instinctively acknowledge when we call Him the good God.
This goodness is seen as patience or longanimity awaiting the penitent, as mercy in the sinner’s pardon. “He is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and merciful.” As infinite God, so are His justice and mercy, rewarding the just with everlasting glory, the wicked with eternal punishment.
“But he delays not His promises”, writes St Peter, “as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” Recall the pardon extended to the good thief, and to so many other well-known penitents.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp789-91
Filipino spirituality, Mary and St John of the Cross
‘The Filipinos are natural contemplatives (V Marasigan)’. This gift of the Lord has not been made to yield returns relative to using our Christian ‘values’, drawn from such a ‘vision’, to provide us the ‘valor’ to fight the onslaughts of consumerism and materialism. We need to see and live the ‘glory’ of the Cross.
Why are we called ‘Juan de la Cruz’? The phrase ‘de la Cruz’ truly defines our being, the potential for greatness of our people; and makes St John of the Cross our angel-spirit. As Pope Paul VI said, our national vocation is to ‘be a beacon of light of truth in Asia’ and that ‘The Philippines is the salvation of Asia’. The latter testimony was firmly re-asserted by Pope John Paul II.
The Philippines is like Mary, Mother of all mankind, longing for Christ to be born, to BE. Mary as Mother of the Church must remain at the foot of the Cross; for the Church anywhere, is being born from the pierced side of the Mystical Christ crucified. It is also from us, as ‘alter-Christus’ on the cross, that the Church in Asia will be, and will grow to the fullness of Christ as God wills, and as He alone can make possible.
Reviewing our history, our endurance as a people primarily through faith and a gut desire to survive, plus a sense of humor and a zeal to celebrate the goodness of God, we can truly say we have faithfully lived the Spirit of Mary at the foot of the Cross. Mary’s ‘Fiat’ at the Annunciation summarizes her self-renunciation.
This is what is being asked of us now. As the only Christian country in Asia, if we say 'Yes' to the vocation of the cross, in love, with God’s mercy and grace, like Mary, we too can sing her ‘Magnificat’. Let us make the Almighty work His marvels for us; and He will if we have faith and we cooperate with grace.
Ref: Susana Jose, “San Juan de la Cruz Today”, 1990, pp4, 7-8
St John of the Cross, priest and Doctor of the Church
He had a marked devotion toward the Blessed Virgin. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, pp507-8)
St Theresa of Jesus (Avila) persuaded him to lead the reform of his Order. He suffered many tribulations. A renowned mystic, he wrote much on the mystery of the Cross. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, 1989, p1715)
Our Lady of ‘Alba Regia’, in Hungary, was built by St Stephen, King of Hungary, who had given his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin. — John Bonifacius, Historia Virginis, lib. ii., c. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of ‘Alba Royale’, Hungary (1005). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Taking them to the Sacrament of Penance. “Arouse our hearts, Lord, to make the way for your Son. Despite all our sins, let your merciful grace hasten the work of our redemption.” (“Prayer”, Mass for Thursday in the First Week of Advent) This prayer speaks of proclaiming the coming of Jesus by asking pardon for sins.
The Messiah is very close to us. During these days of Advent we must be ready to receive him in a new way on Christmas day. Jesus says in a special way, “Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees; and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage do not be afraid!’” (cf Is 35:3-4)
Daily we meet friends, relatives who have lost what is most essential to their life; and feel hopeless. Unable to go to Our Lord, we must show them the way to the cave in Bethlehem. There they will find the meaning of their lives. We must know the way by having an interior life; and strive to improve in the very things our friends need to do better.
‘Our hope in the supernatural means must be firm.’ Usually, bringing our friends closer to Christ means taking them to receive the sacrament of Penance, one of the greatest treasures Our Lord has left to his Church. A great way to help is making it easy for them to go to Confession.
Sometimes we will have to help them, with tact and kindness, make a good examination of conscience. Or accompany them to the place where confessions are being heard. At other times, an encouraging word and affection will suffice with a brief instruction about the nature and value of the sacrament.
What joy each time we get a relative, a colleague, a friend, to receive the sacrament of divine mercy! This same joy is shared in heaven by our Father God and by all the blessed. (cf Lk 15:7) Our Mother Mary will have compassion on them, and on us.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:65-6, 70-71
‘Refuge of sinners. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- The providence, justice, and mercy of God
When we call God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, we acknowledge His providence: care for all His creatures, man most particularly, made in His own image; and for a supernatural end. No earthly father could be indifferent to his children’s welfare.
Holy Scripture thus speaks of God’s paternal tenderness: “Behold, I have graven thee in My hands; thy walls always before My eyes. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.”
The justice and mercy of God are not contradictory. One, a necessary consequence of His sanctity which obliges him to punish sin and reward virtue. The other, consequent to his goodness which we instinctively acknowledge when we call Him the good God.
This goodness is seen as patience or longanimity awaiting the penitent, as mercy in the sinner’s pardon. “He is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and merciful.” As infinite God, so are His justice and mercy, rewarding the just with everlasting glory, the wicked with eternal punishment.
“But he delays not His promises”, writes St Peter, “as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” Recall the pardon extended to the good thief, and to so many other well-known penitents.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp789-91
Filipino spirituality, Mary and St John of the Cross
‘The Filipinos are natural contemplatives (V Marasigan)’. This gift of the Lord has not been made to yield returns relative to using our Christian ‘values’, drawn from such a ‘vision’, to provide us the ‘valor’ to fight the onslaughts of consumerism and materialism. We need to see and live the ‘glory’ of the Cross.
Why are we called ‘Juan de la Cruz’? The phrase ‘de la Cruz’ truly defines our being, the potential for greatness of our people; and makes St John of the Cross our angel-spirit. As Pope Paul VI said, our national vocation is to ‘be a beacon of light of truth in Asia’ and that ‘The Philippines is the salvation of Asia’. The latter testimony was firmly re-asserted by Pope John Paul II.
The Philippines is like Mary, Mother of all mankind, longing for Christ to be born, to BE. Mary as Mother of the Church must remain at the foot of the Cross; for the Church anywhere, is being born from the pierced side of the Mystical Christ crucified. It is also from us, as ‘alter-Christus’ on the cross, that the Church in Asia will be, and will grow to the fullness of Christ as God wills, and as He alone can make possible.
Reviewing our history, our endurance as a people primarily through faith and a gut desire to survive, plus a sense of humor and a zeal to celebrate the goodness of God, we can truly say we have faithfully lived the Spirit of Mary at the foot of the Cross. Mary’s ‘Fiat’ at the Annunciation summarizes her self-renunciation.
This is what is being asked of us now. As the only Christian country in Asia, if we say 'Yes' to the vocation of the cross, in love, with God’s mercy and grace, like Mary, we too can sing her ‘Magnificat’. Let us make the Almighty work His marvels for us; and He will if we have faith and we cooperate with grace.
Ref: Susana Jose, “San Juan de la Cruz Today”, 1990, pp4, 7-8
St John of the Cross, priest and Doctor of the Church
He had a marked devotion toward the Blessed Virgin. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, pp507-8)
St Theresa of Jesus (Avila) persuaded him to lead the reform of his Order. He suffered many tribulations. A renowned mystic, he wrote much on the mystery of the Cross. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, 1989, p1715)
Our Lady of ‘Alba Regia’, in Hungary, was built by St Stephen, King of Hungary, who had given his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin. — John Bonifacius, Historia Virginis, lib. ii., c. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of ‘Alba Royale’, Hungary (1005). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
13 December 2010: John the Baptist, an Advent Figure
“Behold, the Lord will come ...” (cf Is 30:19, 30) The Saviour is about to arrive but the world moves on completely oblivious; remains in darkness. Only Mary knows, and Joseph who has been told by the angel. Christ is in Mary’s womb. The Jews still argue about the Messiah, not aware he is so near.
Few people are expecting the ‘Consolation of Israel’: Simeon, Anna. We are in Advent, a time of waiting. The Church proposes the figure of John the Baptist for our meditation. “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mt 3:3)
“John apears as the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord himself teaches something about John the Baptist -- his personification of antiquity and the announcement of new times. Representing antiquity, he is born to elderly parents. As the messenger of new times, at Our Lady’s arrival, he leaps for joy inside his mother’s womb.” (cf Lk 1:76-7)
“John is called ‘the prophet of the Most High’, because his mission is ‘to go before the Lord to prepare his ways, teaching the knowledge of salvation to his people’.” (St Augustine, “Sermon” 293, 2) And to point out the Messiah.
Although fully conscious of his mission, before Christ, John admits he is not even “worthy to unfasten the strap of his sandals” (Jn 1:27), the least menial task servants do for their master. Later he would say, “He must increase; but I will decrease” (Jn 3:30). True sign of human and Christian maturity.
He is only the voice that announces Jesus: his mission, his life, his personality. His whole being is defined by Jesus, as should be also in our own lives, who alone is important in the life of any Christian.
As Christ gradually manifests Himself, John seeks to disappear. “This is the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:37) he says to John and Andrew pointing to Jesus who is passing by so that his followers should go after Christ.
“John persevered in sanctity because he remained humble of heart.” (St Gregory the Great, “Treatise on St Luke’s Gospel”, 20:5) Thus he merited that praise, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mt 11:11).
Today, the Precursor still points the way for us. When we prepare others to meet Christ, we ought not to be the center of attraction. A desire to draw attention to oneself would leave no room for Jesus.
We are also witnesses to Christ. The grace of Baptism and Confirmation gave us the duty to make our faith in Christ known through our words and deeds. We have received so much greater than John had: “The least in the kingdom of God is greater than John.” (Lk 7:28)
Jesus is about to arrive. Is our witnessing forceful enough to convince whoever do not yet believe in Jesus; or have mistaken ideas about Him?
Our family, friends, workmates, people we interact with frequently, must be the first to benefit from our love for God. With our example and prayer we should reach even people we do not have the chance to talk to.
Our great joy will be bringing to Jesus the indifferent. God’s grace, not our human strength, can move souls towards Jesus. As we cannot give what we do not have, we must strive to grow in our interior life.
The ‘Queen of apostles’ will increase our longing and effort to bring souls to her Son in the certainty that no effort is in vain in the sight of God.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:57-63
‘Queen of prophets. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- The knowledge, beauty and sweetness of God
Our natural understanding and acquired knowledge are limited and subject to error. Not so with God. He sees at once and without effort all that actually is, all that is possible, all that has been or will be; our thoughts, dispositions, and intentions, whether for good or evil, the most secret aspirations of our hearts.
Recall the beauties of this vast universe. The firmament above us is studded with a million resplendent stars at night; in the day made brilliant by the glorious sun, that rises and sets with equal splendor.
Around us are forests, valleys, and hills adorned with an infinite variety of trees, plants, flowers, and fruits; inhabited by every animal species of marked beauty in form and color. The beauties of our mind and soul, and those of the angels, if we could see them, would be infinitely superior to all created things.
Yet all are but the feeblest reflection of the infinite beauty of God. If we could behold it for a moment only, nothing here would ever charm us more. We should see that nothing is worth loving but God alone.
Sweetness is among the most beautiful qualities of man. It proceeds from God, the source of all beauty. He possesses it in infinite perfection. If He imposes commands upon us, he strengthens us to fulfil them by His powerful grace. He encourages us by the hope of an eternal reward; ever ready to pardon if we fail.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp787-9
St Lucy, virgin and martyr -- Patroness of the blind
A native of Syracuse in Sicily, from her cradle, she was educated in the Faith of Christ by her widowed mother, Euthychia. At an early age she secretly made a vow of virginity. Her mother, when informed much later, in gratitude for recovery from a long illness, sustained her pious inclinations.
This vow so enraged the young nobleman who had sought her in marriage and accused Lucy of being a Christian. She was imprisoned, but God gave her grace to overcome her tortures. About the year 304, during the persecution by Diocletian, St Lucy met her death by the sword.
Ref: Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, p507
Our Lady of the Holy Chapel, at Paris. This image, which is under the portal of the lower Holy Chapel has wrought many miracles. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
‘Notre Dame de Sainte Chapelle’ (Our Lady of the Holy Chapel). Paris. Very historic chapel in Paris. Setting of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Holy Chapel (Paris) (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Few people are expecting the ‘Consolation of Israel’: Simeon, Anna. We are in Advent, a time of waiting. The Church proposes the figure of John the Baptist for our meditation. “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mt 3:3)
“John apears as the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord himself teaches something about John the Baptist -- his personification of antiquity and the announcement of new times. Representing antiquity, he is born to elderly parents. As the messenger of new times, at Our Lady’s arrival, he leaps for joy inside his mother’s womb.” (cf Lk 1:76-7)
“John is called ‘the prophet of the Most High’, because his mission is ‘to go before the Lord to prepare his ways, teaching the knowledge of salvation to his people’.” (St Augustine, “Sermon” 293, 2) And to point out the Messiah.
Although fully conscious of his mission, before Christ, John admits he is not even “worthy to unfasten the strap of his sandals” (Jn 1:27), the least menial task servants do for their master. Later he would say, “He must increase; but I will decrease” (Jn 3:30). True sign of human and Christian maturity.
He is only the voice that announces Jesus: his mission, his life, his personality. His whole being is defined by Jesus, as should be also in our own lives, who alone is important in the life of any Christian.
As Christ gradually manifests Himself, John seeks to disappear. “This is the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:37) he says to John and Andrew pointing to Jesus who is passing by so that his followers should go after Christ.
“John persevered in sanctity because he remained humble of heart.” (St Gregory the Great, “Treatise on St Luke’s Gospel”, 20:5) Thus he merited that praise, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mt 11:11).
Today, the Precursor still points the way for us. When we prepare others to meet Christ, we ought not to be the center of attraction. A desire to draw attention to oneself would leave no room for Jesus.
We are also witnesses to Christ. The grace of Baptism and Confirmation gave us the duty to make our faith in Christ known through our words and deeds. We have received so much greater than John had: “The least in the kingdom of God is greater than John.” (Lk 7:28)
Jesus is about to arrive. Is our witnessing forceful enough to convince whoever do not yet believe in Jesus; or have mistaken ideas about Him?
Our family, friends, workmates, people we interact with frequently, must be the first to benefit from our love for God. With our example and prayer we should reach even people we do not have the chance to talk to.
Our great joy will be bringing to Jesus the indifferent. God’s grace, not our human strength, can move souls towards Jesus. As we cannot give what we do not have, we must strive to grow in our interior life.
The ‘Queen of apostles’ will increase our longing and effort to bring souls to her Son in the certainty that no effort is in vain in the sight of God.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:57-63
‘Queen of prophets. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- The knowledge, beauty and sweetness of God
Our natural understanding and acquired knowledge are limited and subject to error. Not so with God. He sees at once and without effort all that actually is, all that is possible, all that has been or will be; our thoughts, dispositions, and intentions, whether for good or evil, the most secret aspirations of our hearts.
Recall the beauties of this vast universe. The firmament above us is studded with a million resplendent stars at night; in the day made brilliant by the glorious sun, that rises and sets with equal splendor.
Around us are forests, valleys, and hills adorned with an infinite variety of trees, plants, flowers, and fruits; inhabited by every animal species of marked beauty in form and color. The beauties of our mind and soul, and those of the angels, if we could see them, would be infinitely superior to all created things.
Yet all are but the feeblest reflection of the infinite beauty of God. If we could behold it for a moment only, nothing here would ever charm us more. We should see that nothing is worth loving but God alone.
Sweetness is among the most beautiful qualities of man. It proceeds from God, the source of all beauty. He possesses it in infinite perfection. If He imposes commands upon us, he strengthens us to fulfil them by His powerful grace. He encourages us by the hope of an eternal reward; ever ready to pardon if we fail.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp787-9
St Lucy, virgin and martyr -- Patroness of the blind
A native of Syracuse in Sicily, from her cradle, she was educated in the Faith of Christ by her widowed mother, Euthychia. At an early age she secretly made a vow of virginity. Her mother, when informed much later, in gratitude for recovery from a long illness, sustained her pious inclinations.
This vow so enraged the young nobleman who had sought her in marriage and accused Lucy of being a Christian. She was imprisoned, but God gave her grace to overcome her tortures. About the year 304, during the persecution by Diocletian, St Lucy met her death by the sword.
Ref: Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, p507
Our Lady of the Holy Chapel, at Paris. This image, which is under the portal of the lower Holy Chapel has wrought many miracles. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
‘Notre Dame de Sainte Chapelle’ (Our Lady of the Holy Chapel). Paris. Very historic chapel in Paris. Setting of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Holy Chapel (Paris) (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
12 December 2010: Feast -- Our Lady of Guadalupe
On this day in 1531, Juan Diego brought to his Bishop some roses (Castillian and not in season) that Our Lady gave as a sign of her request for construction of a church. As the roses from his ‘tilma’ (cloak of maguey fiber) fell to the ground before the Prelate, the image of the Blessed Virgin miraculously appeared, before their eyes, on the garment .
That cloak should have deteriorated -- rags in 40 years; dust in 100. The image should have faded; but has not. No one knows how that image was created. It is not paint nor dye. There are no brush marks ... It is the only supernatural image of the Virgin Mary that has come to us. And she is a brown Lady ... like the Aztecs, the Mexicans, the Filipino.
She came to Guadalupe to stop human sacrifice. The Aztecs were killing 20,000 human beings for their gods yearly. Population control people once proudly announced the more than 60 million abortions in 1995. In all the wars put together, with machine guns, missiles, and [atomic] bombs, we did not kill 60 million. In 1995, 60 million mothers killed their babies.
When the Virgin appeared to that poor peasant, the Philippines belonged to the Diocese of Mexico.
Ref: James B Reuter, SJ, “At 3:00 A.M.”, 1996, pp188-90
The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe
On December 9 and 12, 1531, Our Lady said to Juan Diego: “Know for certain I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and protection. I am your merciful Mother, of all who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. I will hear their weeping, their sorrows, their necessities and misfortunes.
“Listen and let it penetrate your heart. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.” (W H Carroll, “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, 99)
“Am I not your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?” (Francis Anson, “Guadalupe: What her eyes say”, 1994, p72)
The Bishop had asked for a sign as proof of Mary’s petition. Our Lady appeared again later and directed the amazed peasant to cut long-stemmed roses growing nearby on the arid hillside to be presented to the Bishop. This miraculous event took place on this day, in the dead of winter, 2,000 feet above sea level.
When Juan Diego spread out his white cloak to deliver the roses, “the beloved image of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared, impressed upon it, as is plain for any observer to see today.” (“Nican Mopohua”, Mexico 1981, pp181-3) This image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, surrounded by a radiant light, gradually appeared in full colour on his simple garment.
NASA scientists who thoroughly analyzed the image under infrared light conclude that “The whole face is formed by unknown pigments that cannot be explained by the present state of science.” (Francis Anson, op cit, p94) Furthermore, image digitalization of the eyes of the image reveals different human figures that “have been there for 450 years.” (Ibid, pp115-6)
A wave of conversions in the entire Aztec territory, extending from Central America to the Philippines, took place following Our Lady’s apparition on Tepeyac hill.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to be a great sign of Christ’s nearness to us ... She extends an invitation to all men and women to enter into communion with the Father. At the same time, Mary encourages all of us to enter into greater communion with one another ...” (John Paul II, “Address”, 13 December 1987)
On a pilgrimage to Guadalupe, Pope John Paul II prayed: “Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas ... behold how great is the harvest. Intercede before the Lord for us so our hunger for sanctity in the world may increase ... May all the faithful strive to follow Christ closely. May the life of each one be filled with loving and humble service, carried out for the glory of God and the good of all souls.” (Ibid, “Prayer of Petition”, 27 January 1979)
Our Lady’s efficacious intercession has always prepared the way for the work of evangelization of nations. We cannot even imagine carrying out the apostolate of friendship and confidence without the help of Our Lady.
We ask Our Lady of Guadalupe: “Queen of Apostles, accept our complete readiness to work for the restoration and fulfilment of your Son’s kingdom. May we not withhold anything at all in helping to bring his salvific Will to fruition. May we be completely dedicated to the cause of the Gospel and of ultimate peace ... May our struggle be firmly grounded on justice, and be a stimulus for reciprocal charity ...” (Ibid)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:351-8
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, Mexico (1531). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
‘Virgin most merciful. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- Omnipotence, sanctity, and happiness of God
Whenever we call to mind the creation of the world, we are at once struck with the omnipotence of God. To create, ie, to make anything out of nothing, presupposes infinite power. God is, therefore, omnipotent.
“By His word the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the spirit of His mouth.” A single act of His will could as instantly recall the whole into nothing, or as instantly create millions of new worlds.
The sanctity of God, being inherent to His infinite essence, is likewise necessarily infinite. Thus God loves above all things the good that we do, while He hates the evil in like proportion.
God, being infinitely holy, powerful, wise, and just, is necessarily infinitely happy. He is to Himself and in Himself supreme and infinite bliss, from which angels draw for all eternity ever new and endless joys.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp785-7
Dazzled -- “Christ ascended the Cross with his arms wide open, with the all-embracing gesture of the Eternal Priest. Now he counts on us -- who are nothing! -- to bring the fruits of his Redemption to ‘all’ men.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 4)
Our Lady of Good Tidings, at Abbeville. This little chapel, which is in St Peter’s priory, has always been much frequented. — Antiquites d’Abbeville. liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
‘Notre Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle’ (Our Lady of Good News / Good Tidings). Abbeville, France. Cathedral in Nancy, France. Church in Paris, and name of a region of Paris. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
That cloak should have deteriorated -- rags in 40 years; dust in 100. The image should have faded; but has not. No one knows how that image was created. It is not paint nor dye. There are no brush marks ... It is the only supernatural image of the Virgin Mary that has come to us. And she is a brown Lady ... like the Aztecs, the Mexicans, the Filipino.
She came to Guadalupe to stop human sacrifice. The Aztecs were killing 20,000 human beings for their gods yearly. Population control people once proudly announced the more than 60 million abortions in 1995. In all the wars put together, with machine guns, missiles, and [atomic] bombs, we did not kill 60 million. In 1995, 60 million mothers killed their babies.
When the Virgin appeared to that poor peasant, the Philippines belonged to the Diocese of Mexico.
Ref: James B Reuter, SJ, “At 3:00 A.M.”, 1996, pp188-90
The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe
On December 9 and 12, 1531, Our Lady said to Juan Diego: “Know for certain I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and protection. I am your merciful Mother, of all who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. I will hear their weeping, their sorrows, their necessities and misfortunes.
“Listen and let it penetrate your heart. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.” (W H Carroll, “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, 99)
“Am I not your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?” (Francis Anson, “Guadalupe: What her eyes say”, 1994, p72)
The Bishop had asked for a sign as proof of Mary’s petition. Our Lady appeared again later and directed the amazed peasant to cut long-stemmed roses growing nearby on the arid hillside to be presented to the Bishop. This miraculous event took place on this day, in the dead of winter, 2,000 feet above sea level.
When Juan Diego spread out his white cloak to deliver the roses, “the beloved image of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared, impressed upon it, as is plain for any observer to see today.” (“Nican Mopohua”, Mexico 1981, pp181-3) This image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, surrounded by a radiant light, gradually appeared in full colour on his simple garment.
NASA scientists who thoroughly analyzed the image under infrared light conclude that “The whole face is formed by unknown pigments that cannot be explained by the present state of science.” (Francis Anson, op cit, p94) Furthermore, image digitalization of the eyes of the image reveals different human figures that “have been there for 450 years.” (Ibid, pp115-6)
A wave of conversions in the entire Aztec territory, extending from Central America to the Philippines, took place following Our Lady’s apparition on Tepeyac hill.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to be a great sign of Christ’s nearness to us ... She extends an invitation to all men and women to enter into communion with the Father. At the same time, Mary encourages all of us to enter into greater communion with one another ...” (John Paul II, “Address”, 13 December 1987)
On a pilgrimage to Guadalupe, Pope John Paul II prayed: “Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas ... behold how great is the harvest. Intercede before the Lord for us so our hunger for sanctity in the world may increase ... May all the faithful strive to follow Christ closely. May the life of each one be filled with loving and humble service, carried out for the glory of God and the good of all souls.” (Ibid, “Prayer of Petition”, 27 January 1979)
Our Lady’s efficacious intercession has always prepared the way for the work of evangelization of nations. We cannot even imagine carrying out the apostolate of friendship and confidence without the help of Our Lady.
We ask Our Lady of Guadalupe: “Queen of Apostles, accept our complete readiness to work for the restoration and fulfilment of your Son’s kingdom. May we not withhold anything at all in helping to bring his salvific Will to fruition. May we be completely dedicated to the cause of the Gospel and of ultimate peace ... May our struggle be firmly grounded on justice, and be a stimulus for reciprocal charity ...” (Ibid)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:351-8
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, Mexico (1531). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
‘Virgin most merciful. Pray for us.’
On the Divine Attributes -- Omnipotence, sanctity, and happiness of God
Whenever we call to mind the creation of the world, we are at once struck with the omnipotence of God. To create, ie, to make anything out of nothing, presupposes infinite power. God is, therefore, omnipotent.
“By His word the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the spirit of His mouth.” A single act of His will could as instantly recall the whole into nothing, or as instantly create millions of new worlds.
The sanctity of God, being inherent to His infinite essence, is likewise necessarily infinite. Thus God loves above all things the good that we do, while He hates the evil in like proportion.
God, being infinitely holy, powerful, wise, and just, is necessarily infinitely happy. He is to Himself and in Himself supreme and infinite bliss, from which angels draw for all eternity ever new and endless joys.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp785-7
Dazzled -- “Christ ascended the Cross with his arms wide open, with the all-embracing gesture of the Eternal Priest. Now he counts on us -- who are nothing! -- to bring the fruits of his Redemption to ‘all’ men.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 4)
Our Lady of Good Tidings, at Abbeville. This little chapel, which is in St Peter’s priory, has always been much frequented. — Antiquites d’Abbeville. liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
‘Notre Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle’ (Our Lady of Good News / Good Tidings). Abbeville, France. Cathedral in Nancy, France. Church in Paris, and name of a region of Paris. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
11 December 2010: The Need for Faith
Asking for faith
Two blind men shouted, “Son of David, take pity on us”. Our Lord asks: “Do you believe I can do this?” At their reply, “Yes Lord”, he cures them with the words: “According to your faith, be it done to you.” (Mt 9:27-31)
Similarly, he restores the sight of another man in Jericho: “Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Immediately regaining his sight, he followed him.” (Mk 10:52) He assures the dead girl’s father -- “Do not fear; only believe and she shall be well.” (Lk 8:50)
Some moments earlier he has cured a woman who, for twelve years, suffered from an internal hemorrhage. She touched the fringe of his cloak from behind. “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” (Lk 8:43-8)
To the Canaanite he said: “Woman, great is thy faith. Be it done to you as you desire” (Mt 15:28). “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23), to the father of the boy mad with a dumb spirit.
In all simplicity the apostles open their hearts and minds to Our Lord. Their faith often falls short of what they see and hear. They ask Jesus one day: “Increase our faith.” Our Lord replies, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Be rooted up and be planted in the sea’, and it would obey you” (Lk 17:5-6).
With eyes fixed on God, we fear nothing. Faith protects our whole life; makes us achieve far beyond our scanty powers. We must defend this greatest treasure against all threats.
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven.” (Mt 10:32) What a wonderful promise to inspire us to an apostolic life!
Mary's faith
We ought to follow always Our Lady’s example. Her whole life was grounded on faith; but especially in this season of Advent -- a time of waiting, of sure hope, before the Messiah is born. Imagine her faith in the trying moments before his birth.
St Joseph knocked on many doors. She heard many refusals. The flight into Egypt; God fleeing to a foreign land! Consider too Mary’s trust every single day of those thirty years when Jesus lived in Nazareth, when there were no miraculous signs of her son’s divinity; nothing but simple and ordinary work.
Ponder Mary’s faith on Calvary. “She stood by the cross united with her son; endured bitter grief with her only child; shared with a mother’s heart in his sacrifice by a loving consent to the offering of the victim who had taken birth from her.” (cf Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 58)
Mary lives with her eyes fixed on God. She asks for complete trust in Jesus. Foremost, she desires to see us, some day, in heaven beside her Son.
“O God through the child born of the Blessed Virgin you revealed to the world the splendour of your glory. Help us to preserve in full our faith in the great mystery of the Incarnation, that it may forever be the center of our lives.” (“Prayer”, Mass for 19 December)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:41-7
‘Virgin most faithful. Pray for us.’
Mary is our Life
To understand why the holy Church makes us call Mary our life, we must know that as the soul gives life to the body so does divine grace give life to the soul; for a soul without grace has the name of being alive, but is in truth dead, as it was said of one in the Apocalypse, “Thou hast the name of being alive, and thou art dead” (Apoc. iii, 1). Mary, then, in obtaining this grace for sinners by her intercession, thus restores them to life.
To have recourse to Mary is the same thing as to find the grace of God. “He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord. Listen”, exclaims St Bonaventure on these words, “listen, all you who desire the kingdom of God; honor the most blessed Virgin Mary and you will find life and eternal salvation” (“Psalt. B. V. ps.” 48).
Hence, St Bernard was right in exhorting us “to seek grace, and to seek it by Mary” (“De Aquaed.”); ie, if we have had the misfortune to lose the grace of God, we should seek to recover it, but we should do so through Mary.
Ref: St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, pp50-51
On the Divine Attributes -- Simplicity, immensity and omnipresence of God
The infinite perfection of God eludes the idea of form or composition, from which the angels, the simplest of created beings, are not excluded. God is a spirit, infinitely pure and simple, despite His immensity and various attributes. These perfections and attributes are divided and distinguished. Otherwise we could neither conceive nor express them.
In reality the power, justice, wisdom and mercy of God are one -- the infinite, unchangeable, and eternal Being whose relations with creation are only those of cause to effect, of the Creator to the creature. These things are infinitely above our feeble comprehension. Nevertheless, they are the teachings of faith.
Although God in His essence is absolutely simple, he is also immense and illimitable. “Heaven and the heavens of heaven cannot contain Thee.” He is, therefore, everywhere present. He is with us in prayer, in temptation, in sorrow, in each and every action.
His goodness preserves, His wisdom guides, and His power directs us. Anywhere we go, He is there. “In Him we live and move and are”, says St Paul, just as a fish exists, lives, and dies in the water that surrounds and sustains it. “As often as I breathe I converse with God”, said a holy Father of the Desert.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp783-5
Defeat
190 “If I were a leper my mother would kiss me. She would kiss my wounds without fear or hesitation.
“Well then, what would the Blessed Virgin Mary do? When we feel we are like lepers, all full of sores, we have to cry out: Mother! And the protection of our Mother will be like a kiss upon our wounds, which will then be healed.”
214 “Trust fully in God and have a greater desire each day never to run away from him.”
Ref: cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”
Our Lady of the Angels / ‘Notre-dame des Anges’, in the forest Livry, four leagues from Paris. Three merchants of Anjou having been ill-treated in 1212 in this forest, by robbers who tied them to trees, intending to leave them there to die, had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who immediately sent to them three angels to restore them to liberty. After this miracle, several more were wrought, which made this chapel very celebrated. — Registers of the Abbey of Livry. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of the Angels (forest of Livry, near Paris). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Angels, Paris (1212). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Two blind men shouted, “Son of David, take pity on us”. Our Lord asks: “Do you believe I can do this?” At their reply, “Yes Lord”, he cures them with the words: “According to your faith, be it done to you.” (Mt 9:27-31)
Similarly, he restores the sight of another man in Jericho: “Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Immediately regaining his sight, he followed him.” (Mk 10:52) He assures the dead girl’s father -- “Do not fear; only believe and she shall be well.” (Lk 8:50)
Some moments earlier he has cured a woman who, for twelve years, suffered from an internal hemorrhage. She touched the fringe of his cloak from behind. “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” (Lk 8:43-8)
To the Canaanite he said: “Woman, great is thy faith. Be it done to you as you desire” (Mt 15:28). “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23), to the father of the boy mad with a dumb spirit.
In all simplicity the apostles open their hearts and minds to Our Lord. Their faith often falls short of what they see and hear. They ask Jesus one day: “Increase our faith.” Our Lord replies, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Be rooted up and be planted in the sea’, and it would obey you” (Lk 17:5-6).
With eyes fixed on God, we fear nothing. Faith protects our whole life; makes us achieve far beyond our scanty powers. We must defend this greatest treasure against all threats.
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven.” (Mt 10:32) What a wonderful promise to inspire us to an apostolic life!
Mary's faith
We ought to follow always Our Lady’s example. Her whole life was grounded on faith; but especially in this season of Advent -- a time of waiting, of sure hope, before the Messiah is born. Imagine her faith in the trying moments before his birth.
St Joseph knocked on many doors. She heard many refusals. The flight into Egypt; God fleeing to a foreign land! Consider too Mary’s trust every single day of those thirty years when Jesus lived in Nazareth, when there were no miraculous signs of her son’s divinity; nothing but simple and ordinary work.
Ponder Mary’s faith on Calvary. “She stood by the cross united with her son; endured bitter grief with her only child; shared with a mother’s heart in his sacrifice by a loving consent to the offering of the victim who had taken birth from her.” (cf Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 58)
Mary lives with her eyes fixed on God. She asks for complete trust in Jesus. Foremost, she desires to see us, some day, in heaven beside her Son.
“O God through the child born of the Blessed Virgin you revealed to the world the splendour of your glory. Help us to preserve in full our faith in the great mystery of the Incarnation, that it may forever be the center of our lives.” (“Prayer”, Mass for 19 December)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:41-7
‘Virgin most faithful. Pray for us.’
Mary is our Life
To understand why the holy Church makes us call Mary our life, we must know that as the soul gives life to the body so does divine grace give life to the soul; for a soul without grace has the name of being alive, but is in truth dead, as it was said of one in the Apocalypse, “Thou hast the name of being alive, and thou art dead” (Apoc. iii, 1). Mary, then, in obtaining this grace for sinners by her intercession, thus restores them to life.
To have recourse to Mary is the same thing as to find the grace of God. “He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord. Listen”, exclaims St Bonaventure on these words, “listen, all you who desire the kingdom of God; honor the most blessed Virgin Mary and you will find life and eternal salvation” (“Psalt. B. V. ps.” 48).
Hence, St Bernard was right in exhorting us “to seek grace, and to seek it by Mary” (“De Aquaed.”); ie, if we have had the misfortune to lose the grace of God, we should seek to recover it, but we should do so through Mary.
Ref: St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, pp50-51
On the Divine Attributes -- Simplicity, immensity and omnipresence of God
The infinite perfection of God eludes the idea of form or composition, from which the angels, the simplest of created beings, are not excluded. God is a spirit, infinitely pure and simple, despite His immensity and various attributes. These perfections and attributes are divided and distinguished. Otherwise we could neither conceive nor express them.
In reality the power, justice, wisdom and mercy of God are one -- the infinite, unchangeable, and eternal Being whose relations with creation are only those of cause to effect, of the Creator to the creature. These things are infinitely above our feeble comprehension. Nevertheless, they are the teachings of faith.
Although God in His essence is absolutely simple, he is also immense and illimitable. “Heaven and the heavens of heaven cannot contain Thee.” He is, therefore, everywhere present. He is with us in prayer, in temptation, in sorrow, in each and every action.
His goodness preserves, His wisdom guides, and His power directs us. Anywhere we go, He is there. “In Him we live and move and are”, says St Paul, just as a fish exists, lives, and dies in the water that surrounds and sustains it. “As often as I breathe I converse with God”, said a holy Father of the Desert.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp783-5
Defeat
190 “If I were a leper my mother would kiss me. She would kiss my wounds without fear or hesitation.
“Well then, what would the Blessed Virgin Mary do? When we feel we are like lepers, all full of sores, we have to cry out: Mother! And the protection of our Mother will be like a kiss upon our wounds, which will then be healed.”
214 “Trust fully in God and have a greater desire each day never to run away from him.”
Ref: cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”
Our Lady of the Angels / ‘Notre-dame des Anges’, in the forest Livry, four leagues from Paris. Three merchants of Anjou having been ill-treated in 1212 in this forest, by robbers who tied them to trees, intending to leave them there to die, had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who immediately sent to them three angels to restore them to liberty. After this miracle, several more were wrought, which made this chapel very celebrated. — Registers of the Abbey of Livry. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of the Angels (forest of Livry, near Paris). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Angels, Paris (1212). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
10 December 2010: Our Lady of Loreto
The Holy House of Nazareth where Mary was born remains preserved in Loreto, Italy. In this sandstone and brick home, the site of many pilgrimages for ages, the Blessed Virgin received the Archangel’s message about her Divine maternity. [She lived here after her betrothal. (John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)]
The Holy House of Loreto
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin under the invocation “‘Our Lady of Loreto’ is linked to the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth”. The Holy Patriarch carefully prepared this home to be the best possible place for Our Lady and the Child who was to come. From the beginning, though, this house was Mary’s home.
“Every home is above all a sanctuary created by the mother. She is the one to set it up in accord with her particular personality.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
God desires that all “children of the human family be born into the world within the protective warmth of a family. All children need to have a roof over their heads.
“As we know, the home in Nazareth was not the birthplace of Jesus; but in a stable at distant Bethlehem. He could not even go back to Nazareth on account of King Herod’s edict that all infants in Bethlehem be slain.
"St Joseph was obliged to evacuate the Holy Family to Egypt. Only after Herod had died did the Holy Patriarch dare to take Mary and the Child back to Nazareth.
“From the time of their return the Holy Family shared their daily life in this house, hidden from the world’s view. Their home was the first church to be warmed with Mary’s affection.
"In the midst of the ordinary work these most beloved creatures of God carried out, she lit up their home with a radiant cheerfulness rooted in the great mystery of her divine Son’s Incarnation.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
“We can’t forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life like millions of other women who look after their families: bringing up their children and taking care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary, everyday things -- what some people wrongly regard as unimportant, trivial -- everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 148)
Leo XIII wrote: “What a wonderful model of daily living the Holy Family offers us! ... the perfect example of a Christian home. Each person lives with a tremendous simplicity in carrying out daily responsibilities while pursuing common goals with genuine mutual affection. There is no time for disordered or selfish pursuits. Each one carries out his or her particular responsibilities with such human and supernatural affection that others are edified to behold it.” (Encyclical, “Laetitiae sanctae”, 3)
Pope John Paul II prayed at Loreto -- “Accept, O Blessed Mother of the House of Loreto, my pilgrimage and that of all of us, as a common prayer for the family life of all the men and women of our age. We pray for the well-being of these homes, that they may prepare the sons and daughters of all to enter into the heavenly dwelling place of our common Father in heaven.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
We entrust our home to the Blessed Mother so she may help us care for it as though it were the house of God. May each person at home be able to grow in the practice of human and supernatural virtues. “We pray that our home be radiant with loving mutual concern so every member can be nourished with the warmth and affection of the others.” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, “Familiaris Consortio”, 37)
May our family life be a ‘foretaste of heaven’, an anticipation of eternal life.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:344-50
‘Our Lady of Loreto. Pray for us.’
Translation: Holy House of Loreto (‘Santa Casa di Loreto’). Loreto, Italy. 1291. House, a relic said to be the actual building where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived. ... "translation" is the date when angels are said to have moved the house from Israel to Italy. (English tradition-- exact copy of house was constructed by angels in Walsingham, England, mid-11th Century). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Translation of the Holy House of Loretto, Italy (1291). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
On the Divine Attributes -- God is an Infinite Being and our Sovereign Good
God in His essence is infinite and eternal. His perfections are countless and immeasurable. From Him all existing or possible creatures derive their being: innumerable worlds, nations, kingdoms, and empires, the ranks of the heavenly host, the infinite variety of animals, plants, minerals; each precious stone, every delicious scent or sweet sound.
Whoever possesses God possesses and enjoys all these things; but as they are nothing in comparison to God the Sovereign Good, he enjoys incomparably more in the possession of God alone than he would in possessing them all without God, their author and their source.
God is an incomprehensible Being. The creature being finite, the Creator infinite, and the finite not being capable of comprehending the infinite, it follows that God cannot be comprehended by any created intelligence, not even by the very angels themselves.
The knowledge of the wisest of men, of the highest of saints, is unequal to the task. He is, as the Psalmist says, “an ocean without shore or bottom”. Those blessed souls admitted to the Beatific Vision in all its fullness, who contemplate Him through all eternity, ever find fresh beauties and perfections which eternity itself cannot exhaust.
God has existed from all eternity. He could neither spring into being from Himself, nor at the command of another. His eternity is infinite, incomprehensible. St Augustine speaks well when he says, “Eternity is God”.
This eternal God exists purely and simply, without division of past and future. He is likewise unchangeable both in will and action. When we read in the Scriptures that He repented Himself, or that he was moved, it is a mere mode of expression adapted to our feeble intelligence.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp781-3
Defeat -- “We have to love God because our heart is made for love. That is why, if we don’t give our heart to God, to Our Lady and Mother, to souls ... with a pure affection, it will seek revenge -- and will breed worms instead.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 204)
Institution of ‘Nuns of the Conception of Our Lady’, by Beatrice de Sylva, to whom it is said that Our Lady appeared in the year 1484, clothed with a white robe and a scapular of the same color, with a blue mantle. Beatrice, sister of Blessed Amadeus, adopted this habit for her order, which was approved by Innocent VIII under the rule of Citeaux. — Vasconcellius, in Descriptione regni Lusitaniae. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
The Holy House of Loreto
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin under the invocation “‘Our Lady of Loreto’ is linked to the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth”. The Holy Patriarch carefully prepared this home to be the best possible place for Our Lady and the Child who was to come. From the beginning, though, this house was Mary’s home.
“Every home is above all a sanctuary created by the mother. She is the one to set it up in accord with her particular personality.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
God desires that all “children of the human family be born into the world within the protective warmth of a family. All children need to have a roof over their heads.
“As we know, the home in Nazareth was not the birthplace of Jesus; but in a stable at distant Bethlehem. He could not even go back to Nazareth on account of King Herod’s edict that all infants in Bethlehem be slain.
"St Joseph was obliged to evacuate the Holy Family to Egypt. Only after Herod had died did the Holy Patriarch dare to take Mary and the Child back to Nazareth.
“From the time of their return the Holy Family shared their daily life in this house, hidden from the world’s view. Their home was the first church to be warmed with Mary’s affection.
"In the midst of the ordinary work these most beloved creatures of God carried out, she lit up their home with a radiant cheerfulness rooted in the great mystery of her divine Son’s Incarnation.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
“We can’t forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life like millions of other women who look after their families: bringing up their children and taking care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary, everyday things -- what some people wrongly regard as unimportant, trivial -- everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 148)
Leo XIII wrote: “What a wonderful model of daily living the Holy Family offers us! ... the perfect example of a Christian home. Each person lives with a tremendous simplicity in carrying out daily responsibilities while pursuing common goals with genuine mutual affection. There is no time for disordered or selfish pursuits. Each one carries out his or her particular responsibilities with such human and supernatural affection that others are edified to behold it.” (Encyclical, “Laetitiae sanctae”, 3)
Pope John Paul II prayed at Loreto -- “Accept, O Blessed Mother of the House of Loreto, my pilgrimage and that of all of us, as a common prayer for the family life of all the men and women of our age. We pray for the well-being of these homes, that they may prepare the sons and daughters of all to enter into the heavenly dwelling place of our common Father in heaven.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)
We entrust our home to the Blessed Mother so she may help us care for it as though it were the house of God. May each person at home be able to grow in the practice of human and supernatural virtues. “We pray that our home be radiant with loving mutual concern so every member can be nourished with the warmth and affection of the others.” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, “Familiaris Consortio”, 37)
May our family life be a ‘foretaste of heaven’, an anticipation of eternal life.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:344-50
‘Our Lady of Loreto. Pray for us.’
Translation: Holy House of Loreto (‘Santa Casa di Loreto’). Loreto, Italy. 1291. House, a relic said to be the actual building where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived. ... "translation" is the date when angels are said to have moved the house from Israel to Italy. (English tradition-- exact copy of house was constructed by angels in Walsingham, England, mid-11th Century). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Translation of the Holy House of Loretto, Italy (1291). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
On the Divine Attributes -- God is an Infinite Being and our Sovereign Good
God in His essence is infinite and eternal. His perfections are countless and immeasurable. From Him all existing or possible creatures derive their being: innumerable worlds, nations, kingdoms, and empires, the ranks of the heavenly host, the infinite variety of animals, plants, minerals; each precious stone, every delicious scent or sweet sound.
Whoever possesses God possesses and enjoys all these things; but as they are nothing in comparison to God the Sovereign Good, he enjoys incomparably more in the possession of God alone than he would in possessing them all without God, their author and their source.
God is an incomprehensible Being. The creature being finite, the Creator infinite, and the finite not being capable of comprehending the infinite, it follows that God cannot be comprehended by any created intelligence, not even by the very angels themselves.
The knowledge of the wisest of men, of the highest of saints, is unequal to the task. He is, as the Psalmist says, “an ocean without shore or bottom”. Those blessed souls admitted to the Beatific Vision in all its fullness, who contemplate Him through all eternity, ever find fresh beauties and perfections which eternity itself cannot exhaust.
God has existed from all eternity. He could neither spring into being from Himself, nor at the command of another. His eternity is infinite, incomprehensible. St Augustine speaks well when he says, “Eternity is God”.
This eternal God exists purely and simply, without division of past and future. He is likewise unchangeable both in will and action. When we read in the Scriptures that He repented Himself, or that he was moved, it is a mere mode of expression adapted to our feeble intelligence.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp781-3
Defeat -- “We have to love God because our heart is made for love. That is why, if we don’t give our heart to God, to Our Lady and Mother, to souls ... with a pure affection, it will seek revenge -- and will breed worms instead.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 204)
Institution of ‘Nuns of the Conception of Our Lady’, by Beatrice de Sylva, to whom it is said that Our Lady appeared in the year 1484, clothed with a white robe and a scapular of the same color, with a blue mantle. Beatrice, sister of Blessed Amadeus, adopted this habit for her order, which was approved by Innocent VIII under the rule of Citeaux. — Vasconcellius, in Descriptione regni Lusitaniae. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
9 December 2010: Memorial -- San Juan Diego
Canonized by Pope John Paul II at Mexico City on 28 July 2002.
Early Saturday morning on this day in 1531, ten years after Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico, Juan Diego, 57 year-old Aztec, was bound for his Christian lessons. On reaching Tepeyac hill, he heard a mysterious sound very much like the gentle and delightful singing of many beautiful birds. Suddenly, the music stopped and he heard a voice calling him from the top of the hill: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.”
He dared climb up to where the voice was coming from and saw a young maiden standing there, beckoning him to come closer. She said, “Listen, my youngest child, Juanito, where are you going?”
He answered, “My Lady, Queen, my little girl, I am going to your little house in Mexico Tlatelolco to follow the things of God as taught to us by the priests.”
“Know this as true my smallest child, I am the perfect ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the most true God through whom everything lives. I very much wish and so greatly desire that a small temple be built to me here so that from this house, I shall show and give my love to all because I am your Mother and of all men of this earth.”
The apparition asked him to go and inform the bishop of Mexico adding, “And rest assured I will be very grateful and repay you. I will reward you and glorify you.”
He immediately went to the bishop’s palace. The Aztec recounted to the bishop all that he saw and heard. But he sensed that the bishop did not believe him.
Juan Diego sadly left the palace. On the way home, he passed the Tepeyac hill and found the Queen of Heaven waiting for him in the same place as before.
His sadness turned into joy and gladly told her, “I already went to fulfill your desire. But he told me, ‘Come back so that I may listen to you with more calm. I will consider from the very beginning why you came, what you want and wish.’ He seems to think I am making up these things about the house you wish to be built.”
The Indian pleaded: “Assign one of the noblemen, somebody who is esteemed, known, respected, honored, to carry out your lovable will, your gracious word, so that the people may believe. I’m really a peasant, a porter, a tail, a wing, a poor leaf. I am not meant to go or stay where you sent me to. Please forgive me.”
“Listen, my smallest child, rest assured I do not lack servants or messengers; but it is very necessary you go personally. I dearly beg you to again go to the bishop tomorrow.” Juan Diego again took on the mission.
Ref: Francis Anson, “Guadalupe: What her eyes say”, 1994, pp45-9
‘Virgin most renowned. Pray for us.’
“Prayer
“O Mother of my God, and my Lady Mary; as a beggar, all wounded and sore, presents himself before a great queen, so do I present myself before thee, who art the Queen of heaven and earth. From the lofty throne on which you sit, disdain not, I implore thee, to cast thine eyes on me, a poor sinner.
“God has made thee so rich that you might assist the poor, and has constituted thee Queen of mercy in order that you might relieve the miserable. Behold me then, and pity me: behold me and abandon me not, until you see me changed from a sinner into a saint. I know well that I merit nothing; nay more, that I deserve, on account of my ingratitude, to be deprived of the graces that, through thy means, I have already received from God.
“But you, who are the Queen of mercy, seeks not merits, but miseries, in order to help the needy. But who is more needy than I? O exalted Virgin, well do I know that you, Queen of the universe, are already my queen; yet I am determined to dedicate myself more especially to thy service, that you may dispose of me as you please. ...
“If, in the past I have served thee ill, and lost so many occasions of honoring thee, for the future I will be one of your most loving and faithful servants. I am determined from this day forward, no one shall surpass me in honoring and loving thee, my most amiable Queen. This I promise; and this, with thy help, I hope to execute. Amen.”
Ref: cf St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, 18
On the Divine Attributes
Existence of God -- My reason reminds me of God. All that is within me cries out unceasingly, “Remember thy Creator”. My reason, also, however little I consult it, says, “I exist, therefore, God exists”.
Nothing cannot proceed from nothing. If there had ever been a moment in which nothing existed, nothing would ever have existed. An eternal, uncreated and infinite Being, therefore, must have been from all time. Reason proclaims it, faith affirms it. ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.’
It is impossible not to call to mind our Creator. “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declares the work of His hand. O Lord our God, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth!”
The whole world reminds me of God. Every age and people have paid their homage to God and to His attributes. Cicero, the prince of Roman orators, says, “There is no nation to be found so savage as to be ignorant of the existence of God”.
And again, “Where is the man so deprived of reason, who, when he gazes upwards, is not convinced that there is a God who governs the world?”
The chief of the first American tribe visited by the Spaniards, groaning under the tyranny of his conquerors, reproved them by saying, “White men, you are stronger than ourselves; but one day the Great Spirit who reigns above will punish you as you deserve.”
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p779
Pessimism -- “Fill yourself with confidence. The Mother we have is the Mother of God, the Most Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven and Earth.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 273)
Our Lady of the Conception / ‘Madonna della Concezione’, at Naples, so-called because, in the year 1618, the viceroy, with all his court and the soldiery of Naples, made a vow in the church of Our Lady the Great, to believe and defend the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. — Triple Couronne, n. 43. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Conception, Naples, Italy (1618). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
St Juan Diego, Indian to whom appeared the Virgin of Guadalupe. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Early Saturday morning on this day in 1531, ten years after Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico, Juan Diego, 57 year-old Aztec, was bound for his Christian lessons. On reaching Tepeyac hill, he heard a mysterious sound very much like the gentle and delightful singing of many beautiful birds. Suddenly, the music stopped and he heard a voice calling him from the top of the hill: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.”
He dared climb up to where the voice was coming from and saw a young maiden standing there, beckoning him to come closer. She said, “Listen, my youngest child, Juanito, where are you going?”
He answered, “My Lady, Queen, my little girl, I am going to your little house in Mexico Tlatelolco to follow the things of God as taught to us by the priests.”
“Know this as true my smallest child, I am the perfect ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the most true God through whom everything lives. I very much wish and so greatly desire that a small temple be built to me here so that from this house, I shall show and give my love to all because I am your Mother and of all men of this earth.”
The apparition asked him to go and inform the bishop of Mexico adding, “And rest assured I will be very grateful and repay you. I will reward you and glorify you.”
He immediately went to the bishop’s palace. The Aztec recounted to the bishop all that he saw and heard. But he sensed that the bishop did not believe him.
Juan Diego sadly left the palace. On the way home, he passed the Tepeyac hill and found the Queen of Heaven waiting for him in the same place as before.
His sadness turned into joy and gladly told her, “I already went to fulfill your desire. But he told me, ‘Come back so that I may listen to you with more calm. I will consider from the very beginning why you came, what you want and wish.’ He seems to think I am making up these things about the house you wish to be built.”
The Indian pleaded: “Assign one of the noblemen, somebody who is esteemed, known, respected, honored, to carry out your lovable will, your gracious word, so that the people may believe. I’m really a peasant, a porter, a tail, a wing, a poor leaf. I am not meant to go or stay where you sent me to. Please forgive me.”
“Listen, my smallest child, rest assured I do not lack servants or messengers; but it is very necessary you go personally. I dearly beg you to again go to the bishop tomorrow.” Juan Diego again took on the mission.
Ref: Francis Anson, “Guadalupe: What her eyes say”, 1994, pp45-9
‘Virgin most renowned. Pray for us.’
“Prayer
“O Mother of my God, and my Lady Mary; as a beggar, all wounded and sore, presents himself before a great queen, so do I present myself before thee, who art the Queen of heaven and earth. From the lofty throne on which you sit, disdain not, I implore thee, to cast thine eyes on me, a poor sinner.
“God has made thee so rich that you might assist the poor, and has constituted thee Queen of mercy in order that you might relieve the miserable. Behold me then, and pity me: behold me and abandon me not, until you see me changed from a sinner into a saint. I know well that I merit nothing; nay more, that I deserve, on account of my ingratitude, to be deprived of the graces that, through thy means, I have already received from God.
“But you, who are the Queen of mercy, seeks not merits, but miseries, in order to help the needy. But who is more needy than I? O exalted Virgin, well do I know that you, Queen of the universe, are already my queen; yet I am determined to dedicate myself more especially to thy service, that you may dispose of me as you please. ...
“If, in the past I have served thee ill, and lost so many occasions of honoring thee, for the future I will be one of your most loving and faithful servants. I am determined from this day forward, no one shall surpass me in honoring and loving thee, my most amiable Queen. This I promise; and this, with thy help, I hope to execute. Amen.”
Ref: cf St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, 18
On the Divine Attributes
Existence of God -- My reason reminds me of God. All that is within me cries out unceasingly, “Remember thy Creator”. My reason, also, however little I consult it, says, “I exist, therefore, God exists”.
Nothing cannot proceed from nothing. If there had ever been a moment in which nothing existed, nothing would ever have existed. An eternal, uncreated and infinite Being, therefore, must have been from all time. Reason proclaims it, faith affirms it. ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.’
It is impossible not to call to mind our Creator. “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declares the work of His hand. O Lord our God, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth!”
The whole world reminds me of God. Every age and people have paid their homage to God and to His attributes. Cicero, the prince of Roman orators, says, “There is no nation to be found so savage as to be ignorant of the existence of God”.
And again, “Where is the man so deprived of reason, who, when he gazes upwards, is not convinced that there is a God who governs the world?”
The chief of the first American tribe visited by the Spaniards, groaning under the tyranny of his conquerors, reproved them by saying, “White men, you are stronger than ourselves; but one day the Great Spirit who reigns above will punish you as you deserve.”
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p779
Pessimism -- “Fill yourself with confidence. The Mother we have is the Mother of God, the Most Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven and Earth.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 273)
Our Lady of the Conception / ‘Madonna della Concezione’, at Naples, so-called because, in the year 1618, the viceroy, with all his court and the soldiery of Naples, made a vow in the church of Our Lady the Great, to believe and defend the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. — Triple Couronne, n. 43. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Conception, Naples, Italy (1618). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
St Juan Diego, Indian to whom appeared the Virgin of Guadalupe. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
8 December 2010: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Principal Patroness of the Philippines (“ORDO” 1988, p181)
Pope Pius IX instituted this feast when he proclaimed the Dogma on this day in 1854. This Dogma defined and affirmed the constant faith of the Church -- that Mary was conceived free from stain of original sin. Mary’s privilege is the most beautiful fruit of her Son’s Redemption. As Mother of the Saviour who came to take away the sin of mankind, she received the benefits of salvation on her conception. Christ did not allow it to stain Mary. Her sanctity is a model for all Christians. We seek her intercession to get rid of our sins. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1709)
On this day, we celebrate two significant events in the history of our salvation. Firstly, when Almighty God revealed her to our first parents as the Virgin of the Divine Redeemer. She is the woman destined to ‘crush the head of the serpent’; endowed with the richest treasures of grace and sanctity. (cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp777-9)
Secondly, when Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception was raised from a pious belief to the dignity of a dogma of the Infallible Church on the 8th of December 1854. The resultant universal joy of all the faithful recalled the enthusiasm fifteen centuries before when the Council of Ephesus (431) proclaimed Mary the “Mother of God”. (cf Ibid, op cit)
Let us implore her powerful intercession: that the whole Church may defeat the plots of the enemies of religion, and accomplish her Son’s desire for ‘one fold and one shepherd’. (cf Ibid, op cit)
The Blessed Virgin and the mystery of Christ
“I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God; for he has clothed me in the garment of salvation and robed me in the cloak of justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels.” (“Entrance Antiphon”: Isa 61:10)
“May all creation shout with joy, heaven rejoice and justice rain down in torrents from the clouds. Let mountains exude sweet honey and the hills pour forth cataracts of jubilation. The Lord has shown mercy on his people. He has raised a powerful Saviour from the House of his servant David. The most pure and immaculate Virgin Mother arrives for the health and hope of all the peoples of the world.” (St Andrew of Crete, “Homily on the birth of the Most Holy Mother of God”, 1)
“Mary was predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God, at the incarnation of the Word decreed by Divine Providence.” (cf Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 61) The woman referred to in “Genesis” when God told the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your lineage and hers.” (3:15)
“God loved her with a unique predilection. He filled her with the greatest abundance of his celestial gifts and her participation in the divine nature exceeds that of all the angels and saints together. Her life reflects a fullness of innocence and sanctity. Only the Creator himself can conceive a more exalted creature.” (cf Pius IX, Apostolic Letter, “Ineffabilis Deus”, 8 December 1854)
In this great solemnity we see a meaningful connection with the feast of Christmas. Chronologically close together, they become one grand celebration.
“The first sign of spring while it is yet winter when everything seems dead is the appearance of green shoots. Similarly, in a world stained by sin and plagued by despair, the Immaculate Conception prefigures the restoration of man’s innocence. We can see the imminence of this development in much the same way as we do the appearance of a flower when at first all we see is the bud. It was still winter in the cold world around, but not in Joachim’s tranquil home where St Anne gave birth to a female child. Springtime was just beginning there.” (R A Knox, “Feasts of the Liturgical Year”, 298)
You are all fair, Mary and there is no stain in you. The life of the Mother of God will always be a worthy ideal for us all to imitate because she is a model of sanctity in ordinary life, the kind of holiness that is accessible to all in daily circumstances; a quiet dedication often unnoticed.
The Holy Spirit has taught generations of Christians throughout the ages that the truest path to the Heart of Jesus is through Mary. Thus, we need to accustom ourselves to entrusting our needs with confidence to the Blessed Virgin. She is the ‘shortcut to God’ for us.
“Zealously conserve your tender and confident love for the Blessed Virgin and do not let it grow cold. Be faithful to the Marian practices of piety that are traditional in the Church: the ‘Angelus’, special devotion to Our Lady during the month of May, and in particular, the Holy Rosary.” (John Paul II, “Address”, 12 October 1980)
“Our Lady is rest for those who work, consolation for those who mourn, and relief for those who are sick. ... a refuge for those caught in the storms of life, a fountain of compassion for sinners, a sweet relief for the sorrowful and a sure source of aid for those who pray.” (St John Damascene, “Homily on Our Lady’s Dormition”)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:338-43
‘Queen conceived without original sin. Pray for us.’
· “Let us then cast ourselves at the feet of this good mother, and embracing them, let us not depart until she blesses us, and thus accepts us for her children.” -- St Bernard (St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, 46)
Selection
“Have recourse to the sweet Lady Mary, Mother of God and our Mother also, entrusting to her care the cleanliness of soul and body of all mankind.
“Tell her that you want to call upon her, and want others to call upon her continually. And that you want to conquer always, in the bad moments -- or the good, very good moments -- of your struggle against those who are hostile to our being children of God.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 864
Bernadette was canonized on 8 December 1933. In 1963, her body was exhumed and found to be quite incorrupt and flexible. Clothed in the habit of her Congregation it reposes in a crystal casket near the high altar of the chapel of St Gildard in the Mother House at Nevers where it can be seen daily. (In CC Martindale, “St Bernadette, Peasant of Lourdes”, 74)
The Conception of the Blessed Virgin. This festival began in the East, more than nine-hundred years ago, since mention is made of it by St John Damascene, who lived in 721. It was instituted in England in the year 1100 by St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury; afterwards in the diocese of Lyons, in the year 1145; and finally, Sixtus IV commanded, in the year 1570, its celebration throughout Christendom. — Slolanus, Xotea te Usuard. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Instituted by P Sixtus IV, 1477. Extended to the whole Roman Catholic Church, 1708 by Pope Clement XI. ["...; and finally Sixtus IV commanded in 1576 (note: this date is wrong; Sixtus IV died in 1484), celebration of it throughout Christendom. (Molanus, Notes to Usuard.)"] (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Solemnity: Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Our Lady of Good Health. (Note feasts on 2nd Sunday of May and September 8). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
‘Virgen de Salud’ Basilica. Patzcuaro, Mexico. 1554.
Our Lady of Good Health / ‘Virgen de Salud’ Basilica (1554) and Statue, Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Mexico. Patron saint of this region of Mexico. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Pope Pius IX instituted this feast when he proclaimed the Dogma on this day in 1854. This Dogma defined and affirmed the constant faith of the Church -- that Mary was conceived free from stain of original sin. Mary’s privilege is the most beautiful fruit of her Son’s Redemption. As Mother of the Saviour who came to take away the sin of mankind, she received the benefits of salvation on her conception. Christ did not allow it to stain Mary. Her sanctity is a model for all Christians. We seek her intercession to get rid of our sins. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1709)
On this day, we celebrate two significant events in the history of our salvation. Firstly, when Almighty God revealed her to our first parents as the Virgin of the Divine Redeemer. She is the woman destined to ‘crush the head of the serpent’; endowed with the richest treasures of grace and sanctity. (cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp777-9)
Secondly, when Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception was raised from a pious belief to the dignity of a dogma of the Infallible Church on the 8th of December 1854. The resultant universal joy of all the faithful recalled the enthusiasm fifteen centuries before when the Council of Ephesus (431) proclaimed Mary the “Mother of God”. (cf Ibid, op cit)
Let us implore her powerful intercession: that the whole Church may defeat the plots of the enemies of religion, and accomplish her Son’s desire for ‘one fold and one shepherd’. (cf Ibid, op cit)
The Blessed Virgin and the mystery of Christ
“I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God; for he has clothed me in the garment of salvation and robed me in the cloak of justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels.” (“Entrance Antiphon”: Isa 61:10)
“May all creation shout with joy, heaven rejoice and justice rain down in torrents from the clouds. Let mountains exude sweet honey and the hills pour forth cataracts of jubilation. The Lord has shown mercy on his people. He has raised a powerful Saviour from the House of his servant David. The most pure and immaculate Virgin Mother arrives for the health and hope of all the peoples of the world.” (St Andrew of Crete, “Homily on the birth of the Most Holy Mother of God”, 1)
“Mary was predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God, at the incarnation of the Word decreed by Divine Providence.” (cf Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 61) The woman referred to in “Genesis” when God told the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your lineage and hers.” (3:15)
“God loved her with a unique predilection. He filled her with the greatest abundance of his celestial gifts and her participation in the divine nature exceeds that of all the angels and saints together. Her life reflects a fullness of innocence and sanctity. Only the Creator himself can conceive a more exalted creature.” (cf Pius IX, Apostolic Letter, “Ineffabilis Deus”, 8 December 1854)
In this great solemnity we see a meaningful connection with the feast of Christmas. Chronologically close together, they become one grand celebration.
“The first sign of spring while it is yet winter when everything seems dead is the appearance of green shoots. Similarly, in a world stained by sin and plagued by despair, the Immaculate Conception prefigures the restoration of man’s innocence. We can see the imminence of this development in much the same way as we do the appearance of a flower when at first all we see is the bud. It was still winter in the cold world around, but not in Joachim’s tranquil home where St Anne gave birth to a female child. Springtime was just beginning there.” (R A Knox, “Feasts of the Liturgical Year”, 298)
You are all fair, Mary and there is no stain in you. The life of the Mother of God will always be a worthy ideal for us all to imitate because she is a model of sanctity in ordinary life, the kind of holiness that is accessible to all in daily circumstances; a quiet dedication often unnoticed.
The Holy Spirit has taught generations of Christians throughout the ages that the truest path to the Heart of Jesus is through Mary. Thus, we need to accustom ourselves to entrusting our needs with confidence to the Blessed Virgin. She is the ‘shortcut to God’ for us.
“Zealously conserve your tender and confident love for the Blessed Virgin and do not let it grow cold. Be faithful to the Marian practices of piety that are traditional in the Church: the ‘Angelus’, special devotion to Our Lady during the month of May, and in particular, the Holy Rosary.” (John Paul II, “Address”, 12 October 1980)
“Our Lady is rest for those who work, consolation for those who mourn, and relief for those who are sick. ... a refuge for those caught in the storms of life, a fountain of compassion for sinners, a sweet relief for the sorrowful and a sure source of aid for those who pray.” (St John Damascene, “Homily on Our Lady’s Dormition”)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:338-43
‘Queen conceived without original sin. Pray for us.’
· “Let us then cast ourselves at the feet of this good mother, and embracing them, let us not depart until she blesses us, and thus accepts us for her children.” -- St Bernard (St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, 46)
Selection
“Have recourse to the sweet Lady Mary, Mother of God and our Mother also, entrusting to her care the cleanliness of soul and body of all mankind.
“Tell her that you want to call upon her, and want others to call upon her continually. And that you want to conquer always, in the bad moments -- or the good, very good moments -- of your struggle against those who are hostile to our being children of God.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 864
Bernadette was canonized on 8 December 1933. In 1963, her body was exhumed and found to be quite incorrupt and flexible. Clothed in the habit of her Congregation it reposes in a crystal casket near the high altar of the chapel of St Gildard in the Mother House at Nevers where it can be seen daily. (In CC Martindale, “St Bernadette, Peasant of Lourdes”, 74)
The Conception of the Blessed Virgin. This festival began in the East, more than nine-hundred years ago, since mention is made of it by St John Damascene, who lived in 721. It was instituted in England in the year 1100 by St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury; afterwards in the diocese of Lyons, in the year 1145; and finally, Sixtus IV commanded, in the year 1570, its celebration throughout Christendom. — Slolanus, Xotea te Usuard. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Instituted by P Sixtus IV, 1477. Extended to the whole Roman Catholic Church, 1708 by Pope Clement XI. ["...; and finally Sixtus IV commanded in 1576 (note: this date is wrong; Sixtus IV died in 1484), celebration of it throughout Christendom. (Molanus, Notes to Usuard.)"] (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Solemnity: Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Our Lady of Good Health. (Note feasts on 2nd Sunday of May and September 8). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
‘Virgen de Salud’ Basilica. Patzcuaro, Mexico. 1554.
Our Lady of Good Health / ‘Virgen de Salud’ Basilica (1554) and Statue, Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Mexico. Patron saint of this region of Mexico. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
7 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“O Mary, you are the staircase by which God descended to us and by which we must ascend again to Him.” -- St Bonaventure (cf Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, p27)
Day 8 -- Gate of heaven
In the Litany of Loreto, we invoke Mary’s title, ‘Gate of Heaven’, our access to the Lord: the Temple gate facing East (Ezek 44:1), since through her the ‘Sun of Justice’, Jesus Christ, comes to us. She “is the gate of heaven we confidently hope to enter one day to enjoy eternal happiness.” (Benedict XIV, Apostolic Letter, “Gloriosae dominicae”, 27 September 1748)
Mary is our direct route to everlasting life with God. (F M Moschner, “Mystical Rose”, 240) Without her everything is harder or may be impossible. God has wanted her to dispense the treasures that Jesus had won for us by his Passion and his Death. (St Pius X, Encyclical, “Ad Diem illu”, 2 February 1904)
“Assumed into heaven, Our Lady does not abandon her earthly task of cooperation in our salvation. By her constant intercession, she continues to bring us gifts that lead to eternal life. Her maternal charity sustains the brethren of her Son still on their journey beset by dangers and difficulties until they reach their true home.
“As such the Church invokes the Blessed Virgin by her titles-- ‘Advocate’, ‘Auxiliatrix’, ‘Adjutrix’, and ‘Mediatrix’.” (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 62)
St Bernard tirelessly taught that by the Will of God the Blessed Virgin is our ‘Mediatrix’. Theologians affirm that we receive all graces through Our Lady, subordinate as she is to Christ our one true Mediator. (“Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary” in “Summa Aurea”, VI, 996)
Mary is the ‘Gate of Heaven’. All benefits a king gives pass through his palace gate. No grace comes down from heaven without first going through the hands of Mary. (St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Glories of Mary”, I, 5, 7)
Mary’s intimate union with her Son signifies her special participation in the fullness of power and mercy that derive from Christ Our Lord. More accurately though, Jesus is our way to glory, since through his Passion and Death he opened the gates of heaven previously closed to mankind. She rightly deserves this title because of her all-powerful intercession to procure for us the means to reach heaven. (I Goma, “The Blessed Virgin”, II, 162-3)
Mary is always the way that leads to Christ. “Each encounter with her is a meeting with the Lord himself. What else can constant recourse to Mary mean but a continual search for Christ our Saviour through her, with her, and in her?” (Paul VI, Encyclical, “Mense Maio”, 29 April 1965)
On account of the close relationship between Mother and Son, the Church has taught that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a sign of predestination. (Pius XII, Encyclical, “Mediator Dei”, 20 February 1947) Mary looks after her children in order to expedite their journey along the path that leads to the house of God our Father.
“Mothers don’t record their children’s tokens of affection. Neither weigh nor meticulously measure them. A tiny gesture of affection is as sweet as honey to them, and they give themselves generously in return, bestowing much more than they receive. If good mothers react in this way, just imagine what we can expect from our Holy Mother Mary.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 280)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:331-6
‘Gate of Heaven. Pray for us.’
Mary, a model of humility, obedience and patience
On the eve of this great feast, strive to beg our dearest Mother’s favors with fervent acts of humility, obedience, and patience: virtues which distinguished her. She loved to be hidden and forgotten; to be nil. Already the Mother of God, she served her cousin, Elizabeth.
She was an ordinary woman at Nazareth. Nowhere when our Lord is honored and followed; but appears only when he is despised and deserted. At Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem she was inconspicuous; but grieves by the cross amidst insults.
Our Blessed Lady’s obedience was supernatural: blind, universal, heroic. She obeyed a heathen emperor by going to Bethlehem; conformed to the Mosaic law in the rite of purification which in reality she was exempt. Despite her superior merit and dignity, she was obedient to St Joseph as her lawful spouse.
No creature can claim more suffering. No mother was ever so wounded through her afflictions; but never complained. Modest in prosperity, not downcast in adversity; even rejoicing in tribulation like her Son.
Let us ask our Blessed Lady to make us docile to our Lord’s words: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to your soul.” (Mt 11:29)
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp775-7
Mary is for me an ‘inspiration’ and a ‘protection’
Mary, because of her merits and holy life, is for me an ‘inspiration’: helps me do something worthwhile in my life and to make a somebody of myself at the service of God.
Mary means to me a ‘Mediatrix of graces’, a ‘Protection’. St Bernard said that we have need of a Mediator, with the Mediator Himself. Mary is the most capable for that charitable office. She protects me from the snares of the devil and the enemies of my soul, from the destructive force of bad habits and evil inclinations, and from every kind of sin. She keeps me from physical dangers; and inspires me in serving and pleasing God.
Ref: cf Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, p27
The Struggle -- “Not all of us can become rich, wise, famous ... Yet, all of us -- yes, ‘all of us’ -- are called to be saints.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 125)
St Ambrose, bishop and Doctor of the Church -- He defended the Church doctrine against the Arians; converted and baptized St Augustine. Patron of candle-makers. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, 500-501)
On this day, a Sunday, in the year 1550, the canonesses of Our Lady of Paris being in procession before the image of the Blessed Virgin, which is near the door of the choir, a heretic from Lorraine, breaking through the crowd, sword in hand, sought to strike that image, but he was prevented by those present, and on the Thursday following, he was executed before the porch of Our Lady. — Da Breuil, Antiq. de Paris, liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Vigil of the Immaculate Conception. For USA, World War II began on this Vigil, and ended on the Vigil of the Assumption. Obligation of vigil fast was transferred from Assumption Vigil to this date by Pope Pius XII, 1957. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Miraculous preservation of the image of Our Lady of Paris from heretics. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Paris (1550). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Day 8 -- Gate of heaven
In the Litany of Loreto, we invoke Mary’s title, ‘Gate of Heaven’, our access to the Lord: the Temple gate facing East (Ezek 44:1), since through her the ‘Sun of Justice’, Jesus Christ, comes to us. She “is the gate of heaven we confidently hope to enter one day to enjoy eternal happiness.” (Benedict XIV, Apostolic Letter, “Gloriosae dominicae”, 27 September 1748)
Mary is our direct route to everlasting life with God. (F M Moschner, “Mystical Rose”, 240) Without her everything is harder or may be impossible. God has wanted her to dispense the treasures that Jesus had won for us by his Passion and his Death. (St Pius X, Encyclical, “Ad Diem illu”, 2 February 1904)
“Assumed into heaven, Our Lady does not abandon her earthly task of cooperation in our salvation. By her constant intercession, she continues to bring us gifts that lead to eternal life. Her maternal charity sustains the brethren of her Son still on their journey beset by dangers and difficulties until they reach their true home.
“As such the Church invokes the Blessed Virgin by her titles-- ‘Advocate’, ‘Auxiliatrix’, ‘Adjutrix’, and ‘Mediatrix’.” (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 62)
St Bernard tirelessly taught that by the Will of God the Blessed Virgin is our ‘Mediatrix’. Theologians affirm that we receive all graces through Our Lady, subordinate as she is to Christ our one true Mediator. (“Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary” in “Summa Aurea”, VI, 996)
Mary is the ‘Gate of Heaven’. All benefits a king gives pass through his palace gate. No grace comes down from heaven without first going through the hands of Mary. (St Alphonsus Liguori, “The Glories of Mary”, I, 5, 7)
Mary’s intimate union with her Son signifies her special participation in the fullness of power and mercy that derive from Christ Our Lord. More accurately though, Jesus is our way to glory, since through his Passion and Death he opened the gates of heaven previously closed to mankind. She rightly deserves this title because of her all-powerful intercession to procure for us the means to reach heaven. (I Goma, “The Blessed Virgin”, II, 162-3)
Mary is always the way that leads to Christ. “Each encounter with her is a meeting with the Lord himself. What else can constant recourse to Mary mean but a continual search for Christ our Saviour through her, with her, and in her?” (Paul VI, Encyclical, “Mense Maio”, 29 April 1965)
On account of the close relationship between Mother and Son, the Church has taught that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a sign of predestination. (Pius XII, Encyclical, “Mediator Dei”, 20 February 1947) Mary looks after her children in order to expedite their journey along the path that leads to the house of God our Father.
“Mothers don’t record their children’s tokens of affection. Neither weigh nor meticulously measure them. A tiny gesture of affection is as sweet as honey to them, and they give themselves generously in return, bestowing much more than they receive. If good mothers react in this way, just imagine what we can expect from our Holy Mother Mary.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 280)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:331-6
‘Gate of Heaven. Pray for us.’
Mary, a model of humility, obedience and patience
On the eve of this great feast, strive to beg our dearest Mother’s favors with fervent acts of humility, obedience, and patience: virtues which distinguished her. She loved to be hidden and forgotten; to be nil. Already the Mother of God, she served her cousin, Elizabeth.
She was an ordinary woman at Nazareth. Nowhere when our Lord is honored and followed; but appears only when he is despised and deserted. At Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem she was inconspicuous; but grieves by the cross amidst insults.
Our Blessed Lady’s obedience was supernatural: blind, universal, heroic. She obeyed a heathen emperor by going to Bethlehem; conformed to the Mosaic law in the rite of purification which in reality she was exempt. Despite her superior merit and dignity, she was obedient to St Joseph as her lawful spouse.
No creature can claim more suffering. No mother was ever so wounded through her afflictions; but never complained. Modest in prosperity, not downcast in adversity; even rejoicing in tribulation like her Son.
Let us ask our Blessed Lady to make us docile to our Lord’s words: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to your soul.” (Mt 11:29)
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp775-7
Mary is for me an ‘inspiration’ and a ‘protection’
Mary, because of her merits and holy life, is for me an ‘inspiration’: helps me do something worthwhile in my life and to make a somebody of myself at the service of God.
Mary means to me a ‘Mediatrix of graces’, a ‘Protection’. St Bernard said that we have need of a Mediator, with the Mediator Himself. Mary is the most capable for that charitable office. She protects me from the snares of the devil and the enemies of my soul, from the destructive force of bad habits and evil inclinations, and from every kind of sin. She keeps me from physical dangers; and inspires me in serving and pleasing God.
Ref: cf Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, p27
The Struggle -- “Not all of us can become rich, wise, famous ... Yet, all of us -- yes, ‘all of us’ -- are called to be saints.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 125)
St Ambrose, bishop and Doctor of the Church -- He defended the Church doctrine against the Arians; converted and baptized St Augustine. Patron of candle-makers. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, 500-501)
On this day, a Sunday, in the year 1550, the canonesses of Our Lady of Paris being in procession before the image of the Blessed Virgin, which is near the door of the choir, a heretic from Lorraine, breaking through the crowd, sword in hand, sought to strike that image, but he was prevented by those present, and on the Thursday following, he was executed before the porch of Our Lady. — Da Breuil, Antiq. de Paris, liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Vigil of the Immaculate Conception. For USA, World War II began on this Vigil, and ended on the Vigil of the Assumption. Obligation of vigil fast was transferred from Assumption Vigil to this date by Pope Pius XII, 1957. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Miraculous preservation of the image of Our Lady of Paris from heretics. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Paris (1550). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
5 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“All graces pass from God to Jesus, from Jesus to Mary, and from Mary to us.” -- St Bernardine of Siena (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, pp9, 10)
Day 6 -- Mother Most Amiable
Our Lady, when she consents to be the Mother of the Saviour, becomes the Mother of all men. Moreover, Mary’s spiritual maternity is superior to any human motherhood. By giving birth to Jesus, the Head of the Church, she spiritually begets each of us to be members in Christ’s Mystical Body.
Beside the Lord nailed to the Cross, stand Mary, John the beloved disciple and some holy women. At this climactic moment the Lord speaks to the Blessed Virgin with words directed to each one of us: “Woman, behold thy son.” Then to the disciple, “Behold thy mother.” (Jn 19:27)
He offers to the Father his Mother’s suffering united with his own for the redemption of mankind. It moves us to see Jesus ignoring his sufferings and loneliness during the anguish of the Passion. His oblation is for the sake of all, the virtuous and hardened sinners. His immense love for Mary, whom he does not want to leave alone, still moves us today.
Beside Mary, John personifies every single one of us. Christ gave us his Mother to be our own. He addresses each one of us directly: ‘Behold your Mother. Treat her well for me, and seek her intercession in all your needs. Be sure to take advantage of this most precious legacy I am leaving you.’
Motherhood inherently means care and vigilance for the children. Similarly, our Blessed Mother offers her spiritual protection to all. She intercedes and obtains the graces we all need. Just as Jesus is the Good Shepherd who “calls his sheep by name” (Jn 10:3), Mary loves each of us in a special way; knows us by our name. Every person is unique to her.
Her maternal concern clothes our total wellbeing, body and soul. She leads us to sanctity, a more perfect identification with her Son. Our Lady is an excellent collaborator in the mission of the Holy Spirit who bestows on us supernatural life and grants us the grace to persevere in it.
As a most excellent Mother she always greets us with a smile and friendly gesture. Her look inspires our confidence since she is ever inclined to understand the doubts of our heart. We can abandon all our pressing concerns to her intercession. Our Lady is supremely amiable and loved by all.
“She is all things to all ... For the wise and the ignorant, she prepares the way through her most abundant charity. Her mercy is open to us all: Those held captive by sin are freed, the sick gain healing, the afflicted receive consolation; and all sinners obtain pardon.” (St Bernard, “Homily during the Octave of the Assumption”, 2)
“As we move on as wayfarers in this world, her merciful eyes and arms shall await us in heaven one day. We are called to enjoy indissoluble union with the fruit of her womb, Jesus. He won eternal glory for his Mother and for all of us who approach her for assistance.” (cf L M Herran, “Our Mother in Heaven”, Madrid 1998)
‘Holy Mary, Mother most amiable, pray for them ... pray for me.’ Teach me to love you a little more each day.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 7:310-16
Let us go to the Blessed Virgin who will teach us to draw fruit from difficulty. ‘Cor Mariae perdolentis, miserere nobis!’ (Sorrowful heart of Mary, pray for us.) “Invoke the heart of holy Mary, with the purpose and determination of uniting yourself to her sorrow, in reparation for your sins and the sins of all men of all times.
“And pray to her -- for every soul -- that her sorrow may increase in us our aversion from sin, and that we may be able to love the physical or moral contradictions of each day as a means of expiation.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 258
Does Mary really care for us?
Undoubtedly! She cared for Jesus and Joseph, her devoted spouse. She cared for the Apostles and for all the new members of the rising Church. She continues to care for each and every one of us, her children.
Bernadette was once asked, ‘At the Grotto of Lourdes, did Our Lady look only at you?’ She replied, ‘No, She looked at all the people, and with great affection; at times she seemed to look at them one by one, and her glance would rest on one or another as if she had recognized a friend’.
To know, love and serve God; to make Christ the Center of our spiritual life; to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of our own souls, are all truths of our Faith. Devotion to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, is also essential in our spiritual life.
Mary will help us to get closer to God; prepare us to receive all the graces we need from Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Virgin will make much easier our sanctification and our salvation.
“The faithful must reverence the memory of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ. ... the Catholic Church taught by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and devotion as a most beloved mother. The Blessed Virgin is also intimately united to the Church; she is rightly honored by a special cult in the Church. ...” (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, Chapter VIII)
Since Mary cares so much for us, we must love her tenderly, our sweet mother. Imitate her in our Christian life, in the acquisition of virtues and in doing good. We must believe in her powerful intercession with God.
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, op cit, p9
· “Whoever does not have a great love for the Mother of God cannot have a great love for her Son.” -- St Joseph Cafasso (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, pp9, 10)
You can!
“Let us ask Jesus Christ that the fruits of his Redemption may grow abundantly in men’s hearts: more and more, ever more abundantly -- divinely, abundantly!
“And for this to be so, may he make us good children of his Blessed Mother.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 367
In the year 1584 was instituted the first sodality of Our Lady at the Jesuits’ college, at Rome, whence is derived their custom of establishing it in all their houses. — Balingham on the Calendar. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of the Jesuits College, Rome. (1584) (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Day 6 -- Mother Most Amiable
Our Lady, when she consents to be the Mother of the Saviour, becomes the Mother of all men. Moreover, Mary’s spiritual maternity is superior to any human motherhood. By giving birth to Jesus, the Head of the Church, she spiritually begets each of us to be members in Christ’s Mystical Body.
Beside the Lord nailed to the Cross, stand Mary, John the beloved disciple and some holy women. At this climactic moment the Lord speaks to the Blessed Virgin with words directed to each one of us: “Woman, behold thy son.” Then to the disciple, “Behold thy mother.” (Jn 19:27)
He offers to the Father his Mother’s suffering united with his own for the redemption of mankind. It moves us to see Jesus ignoring his sufferings and loneliness during the anguish of the Passion. His oblation is for the sake of all, the virtuous and hardened sinners. His immense love for Mary, whom he does not want to leave alone, still moves us today.
Beside Mary, John personifies every single one of us. Christ gave us his Mother to be our own. He addresses each one of us directly: ‘Behold your Mother. Treat her well for me, and seek her intercession in all your needs. Be sure to take advantage of this most precious legacy I am leaving you.’
Motherhood inherently means care and vigilance for the children. Similarly, our Blessed Mother offers her spiritual protection to all. She intercedes and obtains the graces we all need. Just as Jesus is the Good Shepherd who “calls his sheep by name” (Jn 10:3), Mary loves each of us in a special way; knows us by our name. Every person is unique to her.
Her maternal concern clothes our total wellbeing, body and soul. She leads us to sanctity, a more perfect identification with her Son. Our Lady is an excellent collaborator in the mission of the Holy Spirit who bestows on us supernatural life and grants us the grace to persevere in it.
As a most excellent Mother she always greets us with a smile and friendly gesture. Her look inspires our confidence since she is ever inclined to understand the doubts of our heart. We can abandon all our pressing concerns to her intercession. Our Lady is supremely amiable and loved by all.
“She is all things to all ... For the wise and the ignorant, she prepares the way through her most abundant charity. Her mercy is open to us all: Those held captive by sin are freed, the sick gain healing, the afflicted receive consolation; and all sinners obtain pardon.” (St Bernard, “Homily during the Octave of the Assumption”, 2)
“As we move on as wayfarers in this world, her merciful eyes and arms shall await us in heaven one day. We are called to enjoy indissoluble union with the fruit of her womb, Jesus. He won eternal glory for his Mother and for all of us who approach her for assistance.” (cf L M Herran, “Our Mother in Heaven”, Madrid 1998)
‘Holy Mary, Mother most amiable, pray for them ... pray for me.’ Teach me to love you a little more each day.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 7:310-16
Let us go to the Blessed Virgin who will teach us to draw fruit from difficulty. ‘Cor Mariae perdolentis, miserere nobis!’ (Sorrowful heart of Mary, pray for us.) “Invoke the heart of holy Mary, with the purpose and determination of uniting yourself to her sorrow, in reparation for your sins and the sins of all men of all times.
“And pray to her -- for every soul -- that her sorrow may increase in us our aversion from sin, and that we may be able to love the physical or moral contradictions of each day as a means of expiation.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 258
Does Mary really care for us?
Undoubtedly! She cared for Jesus and Joseph, her devoted spouse. She cared for the Apostles and for all the new members of the rising Church. She continues to care for each and every one of us, her children.
Bernadette was once asked, ‘At the Grotto of Lourdes, did Our Lady look only at you?’ She replied, ‘No, She looked at all the people, and with great affection; at times she seemed to look at them one by one, and her glance would rest on one or another as if she had recognized a friend’.
To know, love and serve God; to make Christ the Center of our spiritual life; to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of our own souls, are all truths of our Faith. Devotion to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, is also essential in our spiritual life.
Mary will help us to get closer to God; prepare us to receive all the graces we need from Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Virgin will make much easier our sanctification and our salvation.
“The faithful must reverence the memory of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ. ... the Catholic Church taught by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and devotion as a most beloved mother. The Blessed Virgin is also intimately united to the Church; she is rightly honored by a special cult in the Church. ...” (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, Chapter VIII)
Since Mary cares so much for us, we must love her tenderly, our sweet mother. Imitate her in our Christian life, in the acquisition of virtues and in doing good. We must believe in her powerful intercession with God.
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, op cit, p9
· “Whoever does not have a great love for the Mother of God cannot have a great love for her Son.” -- St Joseph Cafasso (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, pp9, 10)
You can!
“Let us ask Jesus Christ that the fruits of his Redemption may grow abundantly in men’s hearts: more and more, ever more abundantly -- divinely, abundantly!
“And for this to be so, may he make us good children of his Blessed Mother.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 367
In the year 1584 was instituted the first sodality of Our Lady at the Jesuits’ college, at Rome, whence is derived their custom of establishing it in all their houses. — Balingham on the Calendar. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of the Jesuits College, Rome. (1584) (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
4 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“Draw us, O Immaculate Virgin, we will run after thee in the odour of thy ointments.” (Song of Songs 1:3)
Day 5 -- Mystical Rose
Having Jesus beside us always through a life of prayer.
St Luke confirms Mary’s contemplative spirit on three separate events: On Christmas Eve in Bethlehem; on returning from Jerusalem; and after Mary and Joseph find the child Jesus teaching in the temple. Most probably she confided to the Apostles this natural interior disposition.
The Blessed Mother treasures in her heart the great and small events of her simple life in the light of faith. Mary is a supreme example of interior recollection. Her insistent prayer rises to heaven like the sweet perfume of the rose.
“Our Lady’s praise and petition to God constantly advance with fresh vigor since she started in Our Lord’s service; her love ever vibrant and virginal. The fragrance of her prayer is stirred by the breeze of our petition and the stormy winds that blow throughout the world. She joins our thanksgiving and petition to her own, and presents it to the Father through Jesus Christ her Son.” (F M Moschner, “Mystical Rose”, p201)
When Mary looks or smiles at Jesus or even just think about him, she is speaking to God. Truly what prayer is. (J H Newman, “Mystical Rose”) Our Lady always acted with the express desire to please her Son. Our prayer leads us to identify fully with Jesus. Thus we regard even the relatively minor details of each day with supernatural delight.
Our Lord learned from his Mother many prayers that had been passed down from generation to generation among the people of Israel. We, too may recall prayers that we learned from our own mothers. Our Lady’s example encourages us to deepen our prayer.
The incense of our prayer must rise constantly to God our Father. We ask Our Lady, who is in heaven, body and soul, to petition Jesus for us: “Remember O Blessed Virgin Mother of God to intercede before him on our behalf.” (“Graduale Romanum”, 1979, 422)
Prayer strengthens us against temptation. The Lord addresses these words to us as he did to the disciples in Gethsemane: “Why do you sleep? Rise up and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” (Lk 22:46) We must pray always. Through this union with the Lord, we remain vigilant in the face of adversity.
The Blessed Virgin shows us how to ponder truths of the Faith in our heart. We also come to perceive the events of our life in the light of God’s presence. Apparent disaster and success, the difficulties at work or in the family assume their deepest meaning in prayer. Like Mary our model, we can habitually seek the Lord in the intimacy of our soul in grace.
“Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with him, for you have him so close to you. Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find him, or enjoy him more securely, or sooner, or more intimately, than by seeking him within you.” (St John of the Cross, “Spiritual Canticle”, 1, 8)
If during our daily conversation with God we always seek Mary’s intercession, we will immediately experience her efficacious help. In our mental prayer, a personal dialogue with the Lord, we come to understand better the content of Sacred Scripture, and to perceive with greater clarity what he expects from us.
“There is a growth of insight into the realities and words that are being used in such communication. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their own hearts (cf Lk 2:19,51).” (Second Vatican Council, “Dei Verbum”, 8) Vocal prayer is also most pleasing to God when done as a meditation.
“Spontaneous prayers are simple, ardent phrases addressed to God and to his Mother, our Mother as well. I still renew, morning and evening, and habitually, the offering I learned from my parents: ‘O my Lady, my Mother! I offer myself entirely to you, and in proof of my filial love I consecrate to you this day my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my heart ...’" (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 296)
Our ardent devotion for these simple prayers help us fulfil a duty of charity by teaching them to others. Let us resolve to recite our customary prayers, especially the Rosary, with increased affection and devotion. No other person knew how to deal as intimately with the Lord as his Mother did.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:303-9
The ‘hidden’ Rose
Mary is the most beautiful flower that ever came into the spiritual world. The power of God’s grace brought forth all flowers of holiness and glory from this forsaken barren earth. And Mary is the Queen of spiritual flowers. Therefore, she is fittingly called the ‘Rose’, because the rose is the most beautiful of all flowers.
She is also ‘Mystical’ or hidden. Why ‘hidden’? The answer offers a third reason for believing in her assumption, body and soul, into heaven soon after her death.
The Church has consistently and most tenderly revered the bodies of the Saints except the Blessed Virgin’s body and its separate relics. It is inconceivable that the ‘Queen of Martyrs’, the ‘Queen of All Saints’, the very Mother of our Lord should be neglected!
Why then is she the ‘hidden Rose’? Because that sacred body is in heaven.
Ref: John Henry Newman, “Mary the Second Eve”, 28-9
‘Mystical Rose. Pray for us.’
Pessimism
285 “It is indeed just that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit should crown the Blessed Virgin as Queen and Lady of all created things.
“You have to make use of her power. With the daring of a child join in this celebration in heaven. For myself, since I have no precious stones or virtues to offer, I crown the Mother of God and my Mother with my failings, once they have been purified.
“She is expecting something from you, too.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”
Our Lady of ‘La Chapelle’ / ‘Notre-Dame de La Chapelle’, at Abbeville. This church was built about the year 1400, on a small hill, where formerly they worshipped idols. — Antiquites d’Abbeville, liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of ‘La Chapelle’ (Abbeville, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
Day 5 -- Mystical Rose
Having Jesus beside us always through a life of prayer.
St Luke confirms Mary’s contemplative spirit on three separate events: On Christmas Eve in Bethlehem; on returning from Jerusalem; and after Mary and Joseph find the child Jesus teaching in the temple. Most probably she confided to the Apostles this natural interior disposition.
The Blessed Mother treasures in her heart the great and small events of her simple life in the light of faith. Mary is a supreme example of interior recollection. Her insistent prayer rises to heaven like the sweet perfume of the rose.
“Our Lady’s praise and petition to God constantly advance with fresh vigor since she started in Our Lord’s service; her love ever vibrant and virginal. The fragrance of her prayer is stirred by the breeze of our petition and the stormy winds that blow throughout the world. She joins our thanksgiving and petition to her own, and presents it to the Father through Jesus Christ her Son.” (F M Moschner, “Mystical Rose”, p201)
When Mary looks or smiles at Jesus or even just think about him, she is speaking to God. Truly what prayer is. (J H Newman, “Mystical Rose”) Our Lady always acted with the express desire to please her Son. Our prayer leads us to identify fully with Jesus. Thus we regard even the relatively minor details of each day with supernatural delight.
Our Lord learned from his Mother many prayers that had been passed down from generation to generation among the people of Israel. We, too may recall prayers that we learned from our own mothers. Our Lady’s example encourages us to deepen our prayer.
The incense of our prayer must rise constantly to God our Father. We ask Our Lady, who is in heaven, body and soul, to petition Jesus for us: “Remember O Blessed Virgin Mother of God to intercede before him on our behalf.” (“Graduale Romanum”, 1979, 422)
Prayer strengthens us against temptation. The Lord addresses these words to us as he did to the disciples in Gethsemane: “Why do you sleep? Rise up and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” (Lk 22:46) We must pray always. Through this union with the Lord, we remain vigilant in the face of adversity.
The Blessed Virgin shows us how to ponder truths of the Faith in our heart. We also come to perceive the events of our life in the light of God’s presence. Apparent disaster and success, the difficulties at work or in the family assume their deepest meaning in prayer. Like Mary our model, we can habitually seek the Lord in the intimacy of our soul in grace.
“Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with him, for you have him so close to you. Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find him, or enjoy him more securely, or sooner, or more intimately, than by seeking him within you.” (St John of the Cross, “Spiritual Canticle”, 1, 8)
If during our daily conversation with God we always seek Mary’s intercession, we will immediately experience her efficacious help. In our mental prayer, a personal dialogue with the Lord, we come to understand better the content of Sacred Scripture, and to perceive with greater clarity what he expects from us.
“There is a growth of insight into the realities and words that are being used in such communication. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their own hearts (cf Lk 2:19,51).” (Second Vatican Council, “Dei Verbum”, 8) Vocal prayer is also most pleasing to God when done as a meditation.
“Spontaneous prayers are simple, ardent phrases addressed to God and to his Mother, our Mother as well. I still renew, morning and evening, and habitually, the offering I learned from my parents: ‘O my Lady, my Mother! I offer myself entirely to you, and in proof of my filial love I consecrate to you this day my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my heart ...’" (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 296)
Our ardent devotion for these simple prayers help us fulfil a duty of charity by teaching them to others. Let us resolve to recite our customary prayers, especially the Rosary, with increased affection and devotion. No other person knew how to deal as intimately with the Lord as his Mother did.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:303-9
The ‘hidden’ Rose
Mary is the most beautiful flower that ever came into the spiritual world. The power of God’s grace brought forth all flowers of holiness and glory from this forsaken barren earth. And Mary is the Queen of spiritual flowers. Therefore, she is fittingly called the ‘Rose’, because the rose is the most beautiful of all flowers.
She is also ‘Mystical’ or hidden. Why ‘hidden’? The answer offers a third reason for believing in her assumption, body and soul, into heaven soon after her death.
The Church has consistently and most tenderly revered the bodies of the Saints except the Blessed Virgin’s body and its separate relics. It is inconceivable that the ‘Queen of Martyrs’, the ‘Queen of All Saints’, the very Mother of our Lord should be neglected!
Why then is she the ‘hidden Rose’? Because that sacred body is in heaven.
Ref: John Henry Newman, “Mary the Second Eve”, 28-9
‘Mystical Rose. Pray for us.’
Pessimism
285 “It is indeed just that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit should crown the Blessed Virgin as Queen and Lady of all created things.
“You have to make use of her power. With the daring of a child join in this celebration in heaven. For myself, since I have no precious stones or virtues to offer, I crown the Mother of God and my Mother with my failings, once they have been purified.
“She is expecting something from you, too.”
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”
Our Lady of ‘La Chapelle’ / ‘Notre-Dame de La Chapelle’, at Abbeville. This church was built about the year 1400, on a small hill, where formerly they worshipped idols. — Antiquites d’Abbeville, liv. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of ‘La Chapelle’ (Abbeville, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
3 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“Blessed art thou, O Virgin Mary, by the Lord, the most High God, above all women upon the earth.” (Judith 13:23)
Day 4 -- Cause of Our Joy
“Lord our God, you brought joy into the world through the Incarnation of your Son. Grant we, who honor his Mother, the cause of our joy, may always abide by your commandments with hearts set on true and lasting joy in you.” (‘Prayer over the Gifts’, Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Cause of our joy’)
Authentic happiness comes from God. All of Our Lord’s gifts reach us wrapped in joy. Almighty God’s whole act of creating the world out of nothing was a celebration, particularly man’s creation in the image of God. The Creation account in “Genesis” concludes -- “God saw all that he made and it was very good” (1:31).
Our first parents enjoyed everything in fullness of love: praising and giving thanks to God. They were never sad. After the first sin, though, misery crept into their hearts and replaced the serene delight, God’s original gift. The Immaculate Conception silently caused the first new spark of authentic joy in the world.
Christ is our principal reason for happiness. He removes every trace of sadness from our hearts. Our Lady, truly the ‘Cause of our joy’, by her cooperation in our salvation makes possible our daily experience of Christ’s presence. She continues to offer her Son to the Father for our sake.
Our interior life aims at union with Jesus through Mary. Our most profound joy lies in this union, especially amidst sufferings and contradictions. Losing intimacy with the Lord would be reason for true sorrow.
Mary teaches us how to bring joy to others. The Blessed Virgin can show us how to be the cause of joy for others: in our family, at our work place and in all our social contacts; in our most casual encounters with acquaintances. Our cheerfulness comes to bear in our cordial relations with others, especially amidst adverse circumstances.
Normally, water comes to the faucet from a reservoir. Our source of joy is God to whom the Blessed Virgin leads us. If water does not flow, it gets stagnant and can become polluted. The same occurs with someone who ceases to be a cause of peace for others. “You are unhappy? Think: There must be an obstacle between God and you. You will seldom be wrong.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 662)
Once we discover the reason for our discontent, Our Lady will help us to remedy whatever must be set right. St Thomas teaches: “Authentic joy is born of love.” (“Summa Theologiae”, 2 q2 a28 ) The power of affection is so great we forget our own happiness in order to make the people we love happy.
Whenever we aim to please God, even if our tasks are wearisome, they will never be bitter, but sweet. (cf St Theresa, “Foundations”, 5, 10) Having recourse to Jesus makes us ignore minor differences of opinion. We will then reach the heart of people who are often longing for a smile, a friendly word or a cordial answer.
Complete confidence in God is also a necessary condition. Whoever worries too much about his personal affairs will not easily find the genuine happiness which causes us to be united to God and to other people. Our joy will then provide one more opportunity for others to encounter the Lord.
Prayer prepares us to be open to the grace of God. With this powerful source of help we can accept any difficulty. We leave whatever is bothering us in God’s hands. Our personal conversation with God can help us make a good Confession if lukewarmness and sin, the real causes of our sadness and ill-humour begin to take root in our soul.
We finish our prayer by seeking the help of the Blessed Virgin: “‘Cause of our joy. Pray for us.’ Teach us how to resolve in our own lives the paradox of Christian joy which is born and flourishes in suffering, renunciation and union with your crucified Son. May our cheerfulness always be true and complete, so that we are able to share our joy with those we meet every day.” (John Paul II, “Address”, 31 May 1979)
Let us offer our Mother in heaven the firm resolve to reject sadness in all its forms, and to strive to be the cause of peace and joy for people everywhere.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:296-302
Spirit-Led Prayer
Wherever people are praying in the world, there the Holy Spirit is, the living breath of prayer ... Prayer is also the revelation of that abyss which is the heart of man: a depth which comes from God and which only God can fill, precisely with the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke, “If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (11:13) ...
The Holy Spirit is the gift that comes into man’s hearts together with prayer. In prayer he manifests himself first of all and above all as the gift that “helps us in our weakness”. This is the magnificent thought developed by St Paul in the “Letter to the Romans”, when he writes: “For we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (8:26)
Ref: cf “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 16
Memorial: St Francis Xavier [Fr James Socias, et al (Eds), “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1720]
Born in the castle of Xavier, Spain. He studied in Paris, there met St Ignatius Loyola. Among the first members of the Society of Jesus. Ordained in Rome; left for the orient, and for 10 years evangelized India and Japan. He died in China in 1552.
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk 8:36) These words led St Francis Xavier to a radical change of life. He valued his immortal soul, and that of others, ever since he lived for Christ. Zeal for souls dominated his passion, ready to give his very life to Christ to win their salvation.
Our own hearts may be inflamed with this same ardent concern for souls. Ordinarily, the Lord wants us to practise this virtue in our everyday ordinary circumstances-- in the family, at work or recreation, etc.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, op cit, 289
Our Lady of Filermo, near Malta. This image having remained amidst ruins of the Church of St Mark of Rhodes, was removed into the Church of St Catherine, and finally, the knights having quit Rhodes, it was placed in the Church of St Lawrence, and this having been entirely burnt down, the image remained entire. — Triple Couronne, n. 91. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of Filermo, Malta. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Victory / Victories. Paris (1629). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Day 4 -- Cause of Our Joy
“Lord our God, you brought joy into the world through the Incarnation of your Son. Grant we, who honor his Mother, the cause of our joy, may always abide by your commandments with hearts set on true and lasting joy in you.” (‘Prayer over the Gifts’, Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Cause of our joy’)
Authentic happiness comes from God. All of Our Lord’s gifts reach us wrapped in joy. Almighty God’s whole act of creating the world out of nothing was a celebration, particularly man’s creation in the image of God. The Creation account in “Genesis” concludes -- “God saw all that he made and it was very good” (1:31).
Our first parents enjoyed everything in fullness of love: praising and giving thanks to God. They were never sad. After the first sin, though, misery crept into their hearts and replaced the serene delight, God’s original gift. The Immaculate Conception silently caused the first new spark of authentic joy in the world.
Christ is our principal reason for happiness. He removes every trace of sadness from our hearts. Our Lady, truly the ‘Cause of our joy’, by her cooperation in our salvation makes possible our daily experience of Christ’s presence. She continues to offer her Son to the Father for our sake.
Our interior life aims at union with Jesus through Mary. Our most profound joy lies in this union, especially amidst sufferings and contradictions. Losing intimacy with the Lord would be reason for true sorrow.
Mary teaches us how to bring joy to others. The Blessed Virgin can show us how to be the cause of joy for others: in our family, at our work place and in all our social contacts; in our most casual encounters with acquaintances. Our cheerfulness comes to bear in our cordial relations with others, especially amidst adverse circumstances.
Normally, water comes to the faucet from a reservoir. Our source of joy is God to whom the Blessed Virgin leads us. If water does not flow, it gets stagnant and can become polluted. The same occurs with someone who ceases to be a cause of peace for others. “You are unhappy? Think: There must be an obstacle between God and you. You will seldom be wrong.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 662)
Once we discover the reason for our discontent, Our Lady will help us to remedy whatever must be set right. St Thomas teaches: “Authentic joy is born of love.” (“Summa Theologiae”, 2 q2 a28 ) The power of affection is so great we forget our own happiness in order to make the people we love happy.
Whenever we aim to please God, even if our tasks are wearisome, they will never be bitter, but sweet. (cf St Theresa, “Foundations”, 5, 10) Having recourse to Jesus makes us ignore minor differences of opinion. We will then reach the heart of people who are often longing for a smile, a friendly word or a cordial answer.
Complete confidence in God is also a necessary condition. Whoever worries too much about his personal affairs will not easily find the genuine happiness which causes us to be united to God and to other people. Our joy will then provide one more opportunity for others to encounter the Lord.
Prayer prepares us to be open to the grace of God. With this powerful source of help we can accept any difficulty. We leave whatever is bothering us in God’s hands. Our personal conversation with God can help us make a good Confession if lukewarmness and sin, the real causes of our sadness and ill-humour begin to take root in our soul.
We finish our prayer by seeking the help of the Blessed Virgin: “‘Cause of our joy. Pray for us.’ Teach us how to resolve in our own lives the paradox of Christian joy which is born and flourishes in suffering, renunciation and union with your crucified Son. May our cheerfulness always be true and complete, so that we are able to share our joy with those we meet every day.” (John Paul II, “Address”, 31 May 1979)
Let us offer our Mother in heaven the firm resolve to reject sadness in all its forms, and to strive to be the cause of peace and joy for people everywhere.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:296-302
Spirit-Led Prayer
Wherever people are praying in the world, there the Holy Spirit is, the living breath of prayer ... Prayer is also the revelation of that abyss which is the heart of man: a depth which comes from God and which only God can fill, precisely with the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke, “If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (11:13) ...
The Holy Spirit is the gift that comes into man’s hearts together with prayer. In prayer he manifests himself first of all and above all as the gift that “helps us in our weakness”. This is the magnificent thought developed by St Paul in the “Letter to the Romans”, when he writes: “For we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (8:26)
Ref: cf “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 16
Memorial: St Francis Xavier [Fr James Socias, et al (Eds), “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1720]
Born in the castle of Xavier, Spain. He studied in Paris, there met St Ignatius Loyola. Among the first members of the Society of Jesus. Ordained in Rome; left for the orient, and for 10 years evangelized India and Japan. He died in China in 1552.
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk 8:36) These words led St Francis Xavier to a radical change of life. He valued his immortal soul, and that of others, ever since he lived for Christ. Zeal for souls dominated his passion, ready to give his very life to Christ to win their salvation.
Our own hearts may be inflamed with this same ardent concern for souls. Ordinarily, the Lord wants us to practise this virtue in our everyday ordinary circumstances-- in the family, at work or recreation, etc.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, op cit, 289
Our Lady of Filermo, near Malta. This image having remained amidst ruins of the Church of St Mark of Rhodes, was removed into the Church of St Catherine, and finally, the knights having quit Rhodes, it was placed in the Church of St Lawrence, and this having been entirely burnt down, the image remained entire. — Triple Couronne, n. 91. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of Filermo, Malta. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Victory / Victories. Paris (1629). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
2 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; thou art the joy of Israel; thou art the honour of our people.” (Judith 15:10)
Day 3 -- Handmaid of the Lord
The vocation of Mary. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid.” (Lk 1:46-8) (‘Entrance Antiphon’, Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Handmaid of the Lord’)
Prior to Our Lady’s consent, “God sent the Archangel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town of Galilee” (Lk 1:26). This exceptional envoy conveys to the most beloved creature of God the special news: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Lk 1:30-33)
Mary’s meditation on Sacred Scriptures makes her know well the Messianic passages. She joins to this knowledge an extraordinary interior sensitivity to the Will of God. Through a particular grace, Our Lady learns that she will be the Mother of the Redeemer, the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning a virgin who will conceive and give birth to “Emmanuel” (Is 7:14), which means ‘God with us’.
In her youth Our Lady, moved by the Holy Spirit, consecrated herself to the Lord. Her later correspondence with grace is a reaffirmation of her commitment to fulfilling the divine Will in her life. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word ...” (Lk 1:38). This consent to motherhood is above all a result of her total self-giving to God in virginity.
At Our Lady’s ‘Fiat’, the Word of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes flesh in her most pure womb. Mary, understanding her vocation, knows why the Holy Spirit showers her with many graces; why she is so responsive to these inspirations. “The Archangel’s declaration makes Mary’s attitude assume a completely supernatural explanation.” (Federico Suarez, “Mary of Nazareth”, 29)
The adolescent Mary does not hesitate at the prospect of assuming the incomparable dignity. She is humble and confides in the Almighty to whom her dedication is complete.
“The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Teacher of unlimited self-giving. Ask this good Mother that the generosity of her answer may, with the vigor of love and affection, gain strength in your soul. ‘Ecce ancilla Domini’ ... Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 33)
God calls each one of us. He seeks out and grants his grace to ordinary people in carrying out his plan of redemption. What St Thomas says about the Blessed Virgin applies to every Christian: “God prepares whomsoever he desires for a specific mission. He also grants the particular person the necessary graces to carry out the task they are entrusted with.” (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, 2, q27, a4)
The Lord can prepare a given person’s vocation from childhood. Frequently the Lord makes use of personal friends as instruments to make a vocation known. He can also do it in a sudden or unexpected way as in the case of St Paul. One experiences an interior motion, ‘like a two-edged sword’.
We can tell Jesus in the intimacy of our prayer: Lord, count on me for whatever you want. I shall not put any limits on your grace or on whatever you ask of me. Don’t stop making demands and continue to support me with your strength.
Our Lady’s response to her vocation summarizes the complete response to God’s loving invitations -- ‘Ecce ancilla Domini.’ Her sole desire is to fulfill the Will of God.
Today we can entrust our unconditional 'Yes' to Our Lady, although at times a complete response requires renewed generosity. She will present our gift of self at the throne of her Son.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:282-8
Mary, the Greatest Woman of the Bible
In “Genesis”, Mary, the new Eve, is simply described as the “Woman” who will crush the serpent’s head, and bring a new life into the world, through the redemptive power of her offspring. Isaiah said: ‘A virgin will conceive and bring forth a son, the Redeemer.’
All the prophets talk about the promise of a great woman who will bring salvation to the world by giving birth to a Saviour. Holy Church writers compared this woman’s virtues to those of great women of the Old Testament: Sara, Lia, Rebecca, Judith, Ruth, Queen Esther ...
Finally, in complete obscurity, this ‘Woman’ was born, exempt from original sin; her name was Mary. She lived a quiet life; gave birth to Jesus, the Redeemer, but mentioned only three times during His public life. She spoke very little, and out of 27 books which make up the canon of the New Testament, only four mention Mary by name.
One speaks of her only as the ‘Mother of Jesus’ or ‘His Mother’ but ‘never mentions’ her by name. The four books are the “Gospel” according to Matthew, Mark, John and Luke with the “Acts of the Apostles”. St Paul in the “Letter to the Galatians” mentions “Jesus born of a woman”.
Clearly, the Evangelists’ discourses on Christ find light and support in Mary. She is not the Gospel. There is no Gospel of Mary; but without Mary, there is no Gospel either. So she is not absent in any of the four.
Garbed with the sun, crowned with stars, standing on the moon, Mary, like her Son, remains forever. The world and the stars will pass, but Mary lives on, like the Word of God of which she is the Echo. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, belongs to the domain common to Jesus and His disciples. His Father is our Father, His hour is our hour. His glory, our glory. His Mother, our Mother.
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p12
Friendship -- “Have recourse to the Blessed Virgin every day with complete confidence. Your soul and your life will feel comforted at once. She will let you partake of the treasures she keeps in her heart, for ‘never has it been known that anyone who sought her protection was left unaided’.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 768)
To fight once more -- “If you feel proud to be a son of Our Lady, ask yourself: How often do I express my devotion to the Virgin Mary during the day, from morning to night?” (Ibid, “The Forge”, 433)
Our Lady of Dydinia, in Cappadocia, before which St Basil besought the Blessed Virgin to remedy the disorders caused by Julian the Apostate; he was there favored with an apparition which presaged the death of the emperor. — Baronius, ad ann. 303. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of Didynia (Cappadocia). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of Didinia. Cappadocia, Turkey. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Day 3 -- Handmaid of the Lord
The vocation of Mary. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid.” (Lk 1:46-8) (‘Entrance Antiphon’, Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Handmaid of the Lord’)
Prior to Our Lady’s consent, “God sent the Archangel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town of Galilee” (Lk 1:26). This exceptional envoy conveys to the most beloved creature of God the special news: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Lk 1:30-33)
Mary’s meditation on Sacred Scriptures makes her know well the Messianic passages. She joins to this knowledge an extraordinary interior sensitivity to the Will of God. Through a particular grace, Our Lady learns that she will be the Mother of the Redeemer, the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning a virgin who will conceive and give birth to “Emmanuel” (Is 7:14), which means ‘God with us’.
In her youth Our Lady, moved by the Holy Spirit, consecrated herself to the Lord. Her later correspondence with grace is a reaffirmation of her commitment to fulfilling the divine Will in her life. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word ...” (Lk 1:38). This consent to motherhood is above all a result of her total self-giving to God in virginity.
At Our Lady’s ‘Fiat’, the Word of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes flesh in her most pure womb. Mary, understanding her vocation, knows why the Holy Spirit showers her with many graces; why she is so responsive to these inspirations. “The Archangel’s declaration makes Mary’s attitude assume a completely supernatural explanation.” (Federico Suarez, “Mary of Nazareth”, 29)
The adolescent Mary does not hesitate at the prospect of assuming the incomparable dignity. She is humble and confides in the Almighty to whom her dedication is complete.
“The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Teacher of unlimited self-giving. Ask this good Mother that the generosity of her answer may, with the vigor of love and affection, gain strength in your soul. ‘Ecce ancilla Domini’ ... Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 33)
God calls each one of us. He seeks out and grants his grace to ordinary people in carrying out his plan of redemption. What St Thomas says about the Blessed Virgin applies to every Christian: “God prepares whomsoever he desires for a specific mission. He also grants the particular person the necessary graces to carry out the task they are entrusted with.” (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, 2, q27, a4)
The Lord can prepare a given person’s vocation from childhood. Frequently the Lord makes use of personal friends as instruments to make a vocation known. He can also do it in a sudden or unexpected way as in the case of St Paul. One experiences an interior motion, ‘like a two-edged sword’.
We can tell Jesus in the intimacy of our prayer: Lord, count on me for whatever you want. I shall not put any limits on your grace or on whatever you ask of me. Don’t stop making demands and continue to support me with your strength.
Our Lady’s response to her vocation summarizes the complete response to God’s loving invitations -- ‘Ecce ancilla Domini.’ Her sole desire is to fulfill the Will of God.
Today we can entrust our unconditional 'Yes' to Our Lady, although at times a complete response requires renewed generosity. She will present our gift of self at the throne of her Son.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:282-8
Mary, the Greatest Woman of the Bible
In “Genesis”, Mary, the new Eve, is simply described as the “Woman” who will crush the serpent’s head, and bring a new life into the world, through the redemptive power of her offspring. Isaiah said: ‘A virgin will conceive and bring forth a son, the Redeemer.’
All the prophets talk about the promise of a great woman who will bring salvation to the world by giving birth to a Saviour. Holy Church writers compared this woman’s virtues to those of great women of the Old Testament: Sara, Lia, Rebecca, Judith, Ruth, Queen Esther ...
Finally, in complete obscurity, this ‘Woman’ was born, exempt from original sin; her name was Mary. She lived a quiet life; gave birth to Jesus, the Redeemer, but mentioned only three times during His public life. She spoke very little, and out of 27 books which make up the canon of the New Testament, only four mention Mary by name.
One speaks of her only as the ‘Mother of Jesus’ or ‘His Mother’ but ‘never mentions’ her by name. The four books are the “Gospel” according to Matthew, Mark, John and Luke with the “Acts of the Apostles”. St Paul in the “Letter to the Galatians” mentions “Jesus born of a woman”.
Clearly, the Evangelists’ discourses on Christ find light and support in Mary. She is not the Gospel. There is no Gospel of Mary; but without Mary, there is no Gospel either. So she is not absent in any of the four.
Garbed with the sun, crowned with stars, standing on the moon, Mary, like her Son, remains forever. The world and the stars will pass, but Mary lives on, like the Word of God of which she is the Echo. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, belongs to the domain common to Jesus and His disciples. His Father is our Father, His hour is our hour. His glory, our glory. His Mother, our Mother.
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p12
Friendship -- “Have recourse to the Blessed Virgin every day with complete confidence. Your soul and your life will feel comforted at once. She will let you partake of the treasures she keeps in her heart, for ‘never has it been known that anyone who sought her protection was left unaided’.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 768)
To fight once more -- “If you feel proud to be a son of Our Lady, ask yourself: How often do I express my devotion to the Virgin Mary during the day, from morning to night?” (Ibid, “The Forge”, 433)
Our Lady of Dydinia, in Cappadocia, before which St Basil besought the Blessed Virgin to remedy the disorders caused by Julian the Apostate; he was there favored with an apparition which presaged the death of the emperor. — Baronius, ad ann. 303. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of Didynia (Cappadocia). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of Didinia. Cappadocia, Turkey. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
1 December 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“Thy vesture is white as snow; and thy face is as the sun.” (Daniel 7:9)
Day 2 - House of Gold
Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit God dwells in the Blessed Mother. In the ‘Litany of Loreto’ we call on Mary, ‘House of Gold’, the abode of greatest conceivable splendour. In this foremost Tabernacle in the Old Testament, later the Temple, Yahweh meets his people.
Before God announced his coming into the world, he prepared Mary as the proper creature in whose womb he will dwell from his Incarnation until his birth in Bethlehem. Mary, the ‘House of Gold’, the new Temple of God, is so beautiful, a greater perfection is impossible. The grace of her Immaculate Conception, including all gifts God ever bestowed are in fulfilment of her divine Maternity. (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, 3,q27,a5)
The Archangel Gabriel is full of veneration for Mary on greeting her. He knows her greatness in grace and virtue; her exceptional union with God. The gift of supernatural life exceeds that of all the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins combined. God dwells in Our Lady more than in all the angels and saints. (R Garrigou-Lagrange, “The Mother of the Saviour”, p411)
Mary’s relationship with the Blessed Trinity is most intimate. Her absolute honor is supreme; and her majesty truly unique. The Second Vatican Council reiterated her recognition throughout Church history -- the Father’s firstborn and most highly favored daughter. (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 53)
By Our Lady’s blood relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we can truly say that Mary is the Temple and Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. (John Paul II, Encyclical, “Redemptoris Mater”, 9) What joy to recall we have a Mother very close to God, so pure and beautiful; and can closely identify with our daily experience.
“Sing to Mary Immaculate, reminding her: Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father! Hail Mary, Mother of God the Son! Hail Mary, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit! Greater than you -- no one, but God!” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 496)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:275-81
Early expectations and Christian hope
There are many who repeat the expression “while there’s life there’s hope”, as if hope were an excuse for ambling along through life without too many complications or worries on one’s consciences. Or as if it were a pretext for postponing indefinitely the decision to mend one’s ways and the struggle to attain worthwhile goals, particularly the highest goal of all which is to be united with God.
If we follow this view, we will end up confusing hope with comfort. Fundamentally, what is wrong with it is there is no real desire to achieve anything worthwhile, either spiritual or material. Thus some people’s greatest ambition boils down to avoiding whatever might upset the apparent calm of their mediocre existence.
These timid, inhibited, lazy souls, full of subtle forms of selfishness, are content to let the days, the years, go by “Neither hoping nor fearing”, without setting themselves demanding targets, nor experiencing the hopes and fears of battle: the important thing for them is to avoid the risk of disappointment and tears. How far one is from obtaining something, if the very wish to possess it has been lost through fear of the demands involved in achieving it!
Ref: cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 207
The mistake of Judas and Satan’s complaint
Our Lord’s betrayer, Judas Iscariot, made two mistakes: 1) in desperation, he forgot that Jesus would have forgiven him if he repented; and 2) it did not occur to him that the Mother of Jesus could have helped him.
The devil complained many times to God that His Mother was stealing so many sinners from him, and that he himself has no chance to find recourse to the refuge of sinners.
At a rendition of the Passion Play, the actor who had the role of Judas, going into utter despair after becoming aware of his crime, shrieked at the top of his voice in the most doleful and distressing strain: ‘To whom can I go? I have betrayed my God! To whom can I go?’ The play was at its tensest and most tragic part.
A seven-year-old girl was beside her mother in the middle of a packed hall, completely absorbed by the drama. Sorry for the wretched man in his terrible plight, and eager to help him out, she said to her mother in a childish voice that was heard throughout the hall in the hushed audience: ‘Mama, why doesn’t he go to Mary?’
The child’s simple solution was correct. Had Judas, in his remorse, but gone to Mary and asked her to intercede for him with her Son, instead of becoming a desperate suicide, he could have become a great saint.
Even Satan is jealous of us because we have such a merciful and powerful Mother. It is said that one day the devil said to the saintly ‘Curé’ of Ars (who so greatly loved the Blessed Virgin and made her well-known and loved by others), ‘Ah! If only I had had a Mother like yours, such a merciful refuge of sinners! ...’
Mary is truly the Mother and the ‘Refuge of sinners’! She takes a great pleasure when two of her sons, Jesus and the sinner reconcile. Do you think that you are a great sinner? Listen to what the Saintly Blosius said: ‘There is no sinner so spoiled and so sunken in vice that Mary would detest him and deny him aid.’
· “However great a man’s sins may be, if he shall return to me, I am ready instantly to receive him. Nor do I regard the number of the enormity of his sins, but the will with which he comes to me; for I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds, because I am called, and truly am, the Mother of sinners.” -- Our Lady to St Bridget
· “Mary, the Mother of Mercy, has such a desire to save sinners, that she looks for them in order to help them.” -- St Alphonsus Liguori
· “Mary was born from love, she lived for love, and she died of love ... She is the Mother of beautiful love.” -- St Bernardine of Siena
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, pp29, 35
Our Lady of Ratisbonne, in Bavaria, founded by Duke Theodon after receiving baptism from St Rupert, Bishop of Salzburg and apostle of Bavaria, who afterwards consecrated this church. — Canisius, lib. v. de Beata Virgine. cap. 25. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of Ratisbon (Bavaria, Germany). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Ratisbon, Bavaria (1842). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
‘Notre Dame de Puy-le-Dome’ (France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Day 2 - House of Gold
Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit God dwells in the Blessed Mother. In the ‘Litany of Loreto’ we call on Mary, ‘House of Gold’, the abode of greatest conceivable splendour. In this foremost Tabernacle in the Old Testament, later the Temple, Yahweh meets his people.
Before God announced his coming into the world, he prepared Mary as the proper creature in whose womb he will dwell from his Incarnation until his birth in Bethlehem. Mary, the ‘House of Gold’, the new Temple of God, is so beautiful, a greater perfection is impossible. The grace of her Immaculate Conception, including all gifts God ever bestowed are in fulfilment of her divine Maternity. (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, 3,q27,a5)
The Archangel Gabriel is full of veneration for Mary on greeting her. He knows her greatness in grace and virtue; her exceptional union with God. The gift of supernatural life exceeds that of all the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins combined. God dwells in Our Lady more than in all the angels and saints. (R Garrigou-Lagrange, “The Mother of the Saviour”, p411)
Mary’s relationship with the Blessed Trinity is most intimate. Her absolute honor is supreme; and her majesty truly unique. The Second Vatican Council reiterated her recognition throughout Church history -- the Father’s firstborn and most highly favored daughter. (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 53)
By Our Lady’s blood relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we can truly say that Mary is the Temple and Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. (John Paul II, Encyclical, “Redemptoris Mater”, 9) What joy to recall we have a Mother very close to God, so pure and beautiful; and can closely identify with our daily experience.
“Sing to Mary Immaculate, reminding her: Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father! Hail Mary, Mother of God the Son! Hail Mary, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit! Greater than you -- no one, but God!” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 496)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:275-81
Early expectations and Christian hope
There are many who repeat the expression “while there’s life there’s hope”, as if hope were an excuse for ambling along through life without too many complications or worries on one’s consciences. Or as if it were a pretext for postponing indefinitely the decision to mend one’s ways and the struggle to attain worthwhile goals, particularly the highest goal of all which is to be united with God.
If we follow this view, we will end up confusing hope with comfort. Fundamentally, what is wrong with it is there is no real desire to achieve anything worthwhile, either spiritual or material. Thus some people’s greatest ambition boils down to avoiding whatever might upset the apparent calm of their mediocre existence.
These timid, inhibited, lazy souls, full of subtle forms of selfishness, are content to let the days, the years, go by “Neither hoping nor fearing”, without setting themselves demanding targets, nor experiencing the hopes and fears of battle: the important thing for them is to avoid the risk of disappointment and tears. How far one is from obtaining something, if the very wish to possess it has been lost through fear of the demands involved in achieving it!
Ref: cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 207
The mistake of Judas and Satan’s complaint
Our Lord’s betrayer, Judas Iscariot, made two mistakes: 1) in desperation, he forgot that Jesus would have forgiven him if he repented; and 2) it did not occur to him that the Mother of Jesus could have helped him.
The devil complained many times to God that His Mother was stealing so many sinners from him, and that he himself has no chance to find recourse to the refuge of sinners.
At a rendition of the Passion Play, the actor who had the role of Judas, going into utter despair after becoming aware of his crime, shrieked at the top of his voice in the most doleful and distressing strain: ‘To whom can I go? I have betrayed my God! To whom can I go?’ The play was at its tensest and most tragic part.
A seven-year-old girl was beside her mother in the middle of a packed hall, completely absorbed by the drama. Sorry for the wretched man in his terrible plight, and eager to help him out, she said to her mother in a childish voice that was heard throughout the hall in the hushed audience: ‘Mama, why doesn’t he go to Mary?’
The child’s simple solution was correct. Had Judas, in his remorse, but gone to Mary and asked her to intercede for him with her Son, instead of becoming a desperate suicide, he could have become a great saint.
Even Satan is jealous of us because we have such a merciful and powerful Mother. It is said that one day the devil said to the saintly ‘Curé’ of Ars (who so greatly loved the Blessed Virgin and made her well-known and loved by others), ‘Ah! If only I had had a Mother like yours, such a merciful refuge of sinners! ...’
Mary is truly the Mother and the ‘Refuge of sinners’! She takes a great pleasure when two of her sons, Jesus and the sinner reconcile. Do you think that you are a great sinner? Listen to what the Saintly Blosius said: ‘There is no sinner so spoiled and so sunken in vice that Mary would detest him and deny him aid.’
· “However great a man’s sins may be, if he shall return to me, I am ready instantly to receive him. Nor do I regard the number of the enormity of his sins, but the will with which he comes to me; for I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds, because I am called, and truly am, the Mother of sinners.” -- Our Lady to St Bridget
· “Mary, the Mother of Mercy, has such a desire to save sinners, that she looks for them in order to help them.” -- St Alphonsus Liguori
· “Mary was born from love, she lived for love, and she died of love ... She is the Mother of beautiful love.” -- St Bernardine of Siena
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, pp29, 35
Our Lady of Ratisbonne, in Bavaria, founded by Duke Theodon after receiving baptism from St Rupert, Bishop of Salzburg and apostle of Bavaria, who afterwards consecrated this church. — Canisius, lib. v. de Beata Virgine. cap. 25. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).
Our Lady of Ratisbon (Bavaria, Germany). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Our Lady of Ratisbon, Bavaria (1842). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).
‘Notre Dame de Puy-le-Dome’ (France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).
Monday, November 29, 2010
30 November 2010: Immaculate Conception Novena
“Thou art all fair, O Mary, and stain of original sin is not found in thee.” (Song of Songs 4:7)
Mary constantly showers down graces and favors on the faithful, and so has won the privilege of all-powerful intercessor. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Christians know that they can reach God through his Mother: our shortcut -- the most direct path to God.
Our love for her is shown in our always coming up with new ways of expressing affection for her. We begin the Novena leading to the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception by trying to offer Our Lady something special each day.
Day 1 - Morning Star
Mary is prefigured in the Old Testament. After the Almighty proclaims Redemption following the fall of our first parents, God tells the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed: He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
Literally, the woman is Eve who is tempted and falls. On a deeper level though, the woman represents Mary, the new Eve, who will give birth to Christ, the absolute conqueror of the devil, who is symbolized by the serpent. Satan himself is powerless before her grandeur.
Isaiah prophesied Mary is to be the Virgin Mother of the Messiah. (cf Isa 7:14) St Matthew explicitly refers to fulfilment of this prophecy through Our Lady. (1:22-3)
The Church also applies to our Blessed Mother the praise the people of Israel grant to their heroine Judith, who saved her people (Jdt 15:9-10). Mary cooperates in freeing us from an enemy greater than Holofernes whose head Judith cut off. (C Pozo, “Mary in Scripture and in the Faith of the Church”)
“I am the Mother of fair love, of fear, of knowledge and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue ...” (Sir 24:18)
Our Lady illumines our way and guides us through life. She is also found at the origin of our conversion to Christ. All spiritual benefits come to us by way of Mary.
The Blessed Virgin makes it easy for us to begin over and over again. She offers all that “she ponders in her heart” (Lk 2:51), all that refers specifically to Jesus, towards whom she draws us by the hand. (John Paul II, “Address”, 20 October 1979)
“She does not shine for herself, or from herself, but she is the reflection of her and our Redeemer, and she glorifies him. When she appears in darkness, we know that He is close at hand.” (John Henry Newman, “Mystical Rose”)
Our glowing star when we are on the sea of life. (John Paul II, “Address”, 4 June 1979) “Don’t take your eye off the splendor of the brightly-glowing Star Mary if you do not want to be overcome by the squalls.” (St Bernard, “Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary”, 2)
“The Mother of God is full of grace to a degree that surpasses even that of the angels. Therefore, rightly is she called ‘Mary’ which means ‘illuminated one’. It also signifies ‘illuminator of others’, with respect to the whole world.” (St Thomas, “On the Hail, Mary in Catechetical writings”, 182)
Our Lady, Star of the Sea “alone dispels the darkness, brings down all blessings, and opens the door of Paradise for us. For this reason, the name ‘Mary’ which signifies ‘Star of the Sea’, most appropriately belongs to her. Just as the brightest star in the sky guides sailors toward a safe haven, Mary leads Christians to glory.” (Ibid, 185)
In every moment, she will guide us on a sure path... ‘Most sweet heart of Mary, prepare for us a safe way.’
Ref: cf F Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 7:268-74
Look at the Star ... Invoke Mary
“And the Virgin’s name was Mary. Let us stop to contemplate this name, which fits the Virgin Mary so perfectly. Nothing is more fitting than to compare her to a star which sends forth its rays without being changed, even as the Virgin brought forth her Son without loss of bodily integrity. The ray takes nothing from the light of the star, nor does the birth of her Son detract from the integrity of the Virgin. She is, therefore, this radiant Star whose rays light up the entire universe.” -- St Bernard (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, p17)
‘Our Mother’
“Our mother”, “mother of mine”, “Show yourself to be a mother”: such were the terms with which St Josemaria Escrivá often addressed the most holy Virgin. She is truly our mother, because she begot us to supernatural life. (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 61)
Mary’s motherhood remains without lapsing ... until all the elect have been gathered to God. Once assumed into heaven, she has kept up this saving mission, for with her manifold intercession she continues to obtain for us the gifts of eternal salvation. With love most motherly she tends to the brethren of her Son, who continue as pilgrims amid danger and anxiety till they are led to their most blessed homeland. (Ibid, 62)
Nailed to the cross, Jesus gave us Mary to be our mother: “‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’” (Jn 19:26-7) On the edge of dying he bequeathed his most precious belongings, “the testament of the cross” (John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater”, 30).
Ref: cf Francis Fernandez-Carvajal and Peter Beteta, “Children of God”, 1997, 63
Feast: St Andrew, Apostle -- A disciple of John the Baptist before becoming a follower of Christ to whom he brought his brother, Peter. With Philip he presented the Gentiles to Christ. Before the miracle in the desert, he pointed to Christ the boy with the loaves and fishes. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1702)
He was crucified in Patras, Greece, and according to common opinion, on a cross in the form of the letter X. (“New St Joseph Weekday Missal”, I:762)
St Andrew shows how authentic friendship makes it easy to speak of Christ: the apostolate of friendship and confidence. (cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:264)
Our Lady of Genesta, on the coast of Genoa, in Italy. A poor woman, named Petruccia, undertook to build this church, a task which appeared to every one impossible; she however proceeded to lay the corner stone, and assured every one that she should not die until the Blessed Virgin and St Augustine finished this work. In fact, this church was found miraculously completed a short time afterwards. -- Segninus, in his Chronicle. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
‘Madonna della Genesta’ / Our Lady of Genesta (near Genoa, Italy). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Mary constantly showers down graces and favors on the faithful, and so has won the privilege of all-powerful intercessor. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Christians know that they can reach God through his Mother: our shortcut -- the most direct path to God.
Our love for her is shown in our always coming up with new ways of expressing affection for her. We begin the Novena leading to the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception by trying to offer Our Lady something special each day.
Day 1 - Morning Star
Mary is prefigured in the Old Testament. After the Almighty proclaims Redemption following the fall of our first parents, God tells the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed: He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
Literally, the woman is Eve who is tempted and falls. On a deeper level though, the woman represents Mary, the new Eve, who will give birth to Christ, the absolute conqueror of the devil, who is symbolized by the serpent. Satan himself is powerless before her grandeur.
Isaiah prophesied Mary is to be the Virgin Mother of the Messiah. (cf Isa 7:14) St Matthew explicitly refers to fulfilment of this prophecy through Our Lady. (1:22-3)
The Church also applies to our Blessed Mother the praise the people of Israel grant to their heroine Judith, who saved her people (Jdt 15:9-10). Mary cooperates in freeing us from an enemy greater than Holofernes whose head Judith cut off. (C Pozo, “Mary in Scripture and in the Faith of the Church”)
“I am the Mother of fair love, of fear, of knowledge and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue ...” (Sir 24:18)
Our Lady illumines our way and guides us through life. She is also found at the origin of our conversion to Christ. All spiritual benefits come to us by way of Mary.
The Blessed Virgin makes it easy for us to begin over and over again. She offers all that “she ponders in her heart” (Lk 2:51), all that refers specifically to Jesus, towards whom she draws us by the hand. (John Paul II, “Address”, 20 October 1979)
“She does not shine for herself, or from herself, but she is the reflection of her and our Redeemer, and she glorifies him. When she appears in darkness, we know that He is close at hand.” (John Henry Newman, “Mystical Rose”)
Our glowing star when we are on the sea of life. (John Paul II, “Address”, 4 June 1979) “Don’t take your eye off the splendor of the brightly-glowing Star Mary if you do not want to be overcome by the squalls.” (St Bernard, “Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary”, 2)
“The Mother of God is full of grace to a degree that surpasses even that of the angels. Therefore, rightly is she called ‘Mary’ which means ‘illuminated one’. It also signifies ‘illuminator of others’, with respect to the whole world.” (St Thomas, “On the Hail, Mary in Catechetical writings”, 182)
Our Lady, Star of the Sea “alone dispels the darkness, brings down all blessings, and opens the door of Paradise for us. For this reason, the name ‘Mary’ which signifies ‘Star of the Sea’, most appropriately belongs to her. Just as the brightest star in the sky guides sailors toward a safe haven, Mary leads Christians to glory.” (Ibid, 185)
In every moment, she will guide us on a sure path... ‘Most sweet heart of Mary, prepare for us a safe way.’
Ref: cf F Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 7:268-74
Look at the Star ... Invoke Mary
“And the Virgin’s name was Mary. Let us stop to contemplate this name, which fits the Virgin Mary so perfectly. Nothing is more fitting than to compare her to a star which sends forth its rays without being changed, even as the Virgin brought forth her Son without loss of bodily integrity. The ray takes nothing from the light of the star, nor does the birth of her Son detract from the integrity of the Virgin. She is, therefore, this radiant Star whose rays light up the entire universe.” -- St Bernard (In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, p17)
‘Our Mother’
“Our mother”, “mother of mine”, “Show yourself to be a mother”: such were the terms with which St Josemaria Escrivá often addressed the most holy Virgin. She is truly our mother, because she begot us to supernatural life. (Second Vatican Council, “Lumen Gentium”, 61)
Mary’s motherhood remains without lapsing ... until all the elect have been gathered to God. Once assumed into heaven, she has kept up this saving mission, for with her manifold intercession she continues to obtain for us the gifts of eternal salvation. With love most motherly she tends to the brethren of her Son, who continue as pilgrims amid danger and anxiety till they are led to their most blessed homeland. (Ibid, 62)
Nailed to the cross, Jesus gave us Mary to be our mother: “‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’” (Jn 19:26-7) On the edge of dying he bequeathed his most precious belongings, “the testament of the cross” (John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater”, 30).
Ref: cf Francis Fernandez-Carvajal and Peter Beteta, “Children of God”, 1997, 63
Feast: St Andrew, Apostle -- A disciple of John the Baptist before becoming a follower of Christ to whom he brought his brother, Peter. With Philip he presented the Gentiles to Christ. Before the miracle in the desert, he pointed to Christ the boy with the loaves and fishes. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1702)
He was crucified in Patras, Greece, and according to common opinion, on a cross in the form of the letter X. (“New St Joseph Weekday Missal”, I:762)
St Andrew shows how authentic friendship makes it easy to speak of Christ: the apostolate of friendship and confidence. (cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:264)
Our Lady of Genesta, on the coast of Genoa, in Italy. A poor woman, named Petruccia, undertook to build this church, a task which appeared to every one impossible; she however proceeded to lay the corner stone, and assured every one that she should not die until the Blessed Virgin and St Augustine finished this work. In fact, this church was found miraculously completed a short time afterwards. -- Segninus, in his Chronicle. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
‘Madonna della Genesta’ / Our Lady of Genesta (near Genoa, Italy). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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