Introductory Prayer
Come, O Holy Spirit! Enlighten my understanding in order to know your commands; strengthen my heart against the snares of the enemy; enkindle my will ... I have heard your voice, and I do not want to harden my heart and resist, saying, “Later ... tomorrow.” ‘Nunc coepi!’ Right now! Lest there be no tomorrow for me.
O Spirit of truth and of wisdom, Spirit of understanding and of counsel, Spirit of joy and of peace! I want whatever you want; I want because you want; I want as you want; I want whenever you want ...
Ref: St Josemaria Escrivà, “Prayer to the Holy Spirit”. In Postulation for the Cause of Beatification and Canonization, “Historical Registry of the Founder of Opus Dei” 20172, p145.
Loving God for Himself
Before being endowed with “power from on high” (Lk 24:49), the Apostles were indeed men of goodwill; but extremely weak, timid, and coward. At the Last Supper they all loudly affirmed fidelity to their Divine Master, ready to follow him to prison and to death; but when Jesus was seized, they all abandoned him and fled.
Are we also strong in promises, protests, and good resolutions; but weak and cowardly in deed? Breaking our firmest resolutions soonest after making them?
Yielding to the smallest temptation? Always finding some excuse for neglecting some point of our norms, or some duty; often unable to make the slightest effort in even a trivial matter, such as awaking on time?
Our Lord wished to convince the world that his religion was not the work of men. He, therefore, chose for its propagation eleven Galilean fishermen [plus St Matthew] -- poor, ignorant, uneducated, caring only for their means of livelihood. Such were the Apostles, and such they would always have remained, without the gift of ‘knowledge’ which they received at Pentecost.
If we happen to be better educated, far advanced in secular learning, let us at least admit that we lag behind in the science of the saints. We prefer to study matters which are comparatively vain despite an obligation to aim at a high degree of sanctity, and to bring others to it by our example and teaching.
How imperfect was the love of the Apostles to Jesus! They loved him more for their self-interest than for his. Hence their cowardice and treachery towards him especially at the time of his Passion and death.
Is our attitude similar? Do we really love God for himself; not for our advantage? Is abstaining from offending him chiefly to avoid the punishment of sin, torments of hell, sufferings of purgatory? Our voluntary acts of any virtue are mainly for the promised reward?
These dispositions are not sinful or even blameworthy; but they are far from that ‘piety’, ‘filial fear’, and ‘perfect charity’ infused onto the hearts of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp285-7
In the Spirit Mary Continues to be the Mother of the Body of Christ
The Virgin Mary, even after the birth of Christ, remained ‘in the power of the Annunciation’, ie, in the constant arrival of the Holy Spirit who continually makes her Mother, not only of Jesus, but of the body of Christ, the Church.
Mary, by giving birth to Jesus, engendered ... all of humanity. St Basil calls the birthday of Christ, “the birthday of humanity" (“Homily on the Birth of Christ”). The same concept is affirmed by Nicholas Cabasilas: “The birth of the head [Christ] represents also the birth of the blessed members, because the members do not exist if the head is not born” (“Life in Christ”, IV, 4).
Mary becomes even more so the Mother of the Church in the Upper Room and at the foot of the cross. ... Thus she who is present in the mystery of Christ as mother becomes -- by the will of the Holy Spirit -- present in the mystery of the Church ... where she continues to be a maternal presence, as revealed by the words spoken from the cross; “Woman, behold your son! ... Behold, your mother” (Lk 19:27). (John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater”, 24)
By being assumed into heaven to be with her Son, Mary continually engenders ‘spiritually’, ie, in the Spirit, Christ in his members. In this sense we can say Mary is the “Mother of the Church”, because in virtue of the Spirit she continues to engender the mystical body of Christ, the Church and every believer.
“This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterrupted ... until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect.” (“Lumen Gentium”, 62) The Spirit is always at the core of the maternity of Mary extended to all people.
Everything in the order of grace, in fact, is merited by Christ and applied by the Spirit. But in the “horizontal” distribution of grace the Spirit radiates his sanctifying power through “spiritualized” persons, and no one more than Mary, the ‘pneumatophoros’ (bearer of the Spirit) to the highest degree, can contribute to transforming persons in Christ, that is, to “Christifying” them.
Mary has, therefore, a primary role in the birth of Jesus and of his ecclesial body. The latter takes place always in the power of the Spirit, which also endows her with a share in the power of the intercession of the Spirit. Thus, as Mary is in the Upper Room, among the apostles, “by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit” (“Lumen Gentium”, 59), so in glory does she pray and intercede for everyone.
Similarly, as the Spirit prays and intercedes in us (see Rom 8:15-6) and is our “Advocate and Counsellor” (see Jn 14:16, 26), Mary also, as “bride of the Spirit”, continues to intercede so that the Father permanently sends the Spirit to his Church, and it is the Spirit who transforms people in Jesus the Son. Along with the Spirit, she says, “Come, Lord”, hoping even the last of her children will reach the house of the Father. ...
Mary will always remain the model and prototype of the Church as regards her ‘maternity’. Mary was fertile only by the power of the Spirit. If the Church wants to be fertile, in daily holiness, from an existential and sacramental viewpoint, it must continually renew itself in the Spirit.
As the Spirit mysteriously fertilized the Virgin and engendered Christ, so does he continually fertilize Christ’s bride, the Church. And if Mary collaborates with the Spirit so that this generation takes place, so must the Church docilely make herself available to him to become the “mother of saints and martyrs”.
This is true for the Church as a whole and also for every individual Christian. For Jesus to be born in every soul and continue the mystery of the ‘Theotokos’ (God-bearer), the Creator must put himself into the very hearts of his creatures and the divine Spirit must overshadow them.
Ref: Theological-Historical Commission, The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life”, 86-9, 1997
Our Lady -- “Our Lady of sorrows. When you contemplate her, look into her heart: she is a mother with two sons, face to face: him ... and you.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 506)
• Our Lady of Alexandria church, in Egypt built by St Peter, patriarch of this city. — Baronius, ann. 310. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Alexandria, Egypt (4th Century). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• The Immaculate Heart of Mary. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Madonna of Ludmierz: Principal Marian shrine of Tatra Mountain, Poland. (John Paul II, “Witness to Hope”, 1999, p316)
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