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The divine maternity permits you to love God with a very singular kind of love and to be loved by Him with an equally singular love. Don Jos's actions made me think of another passage, this time from the Gospel of Luke ( 10:29-37 ). Protect me from losing the Holy Spirit by sin. It was life of the utmost weakness and helplessness, and yet His is the strength of God Himself. February 07, 2021. I feel myself consumed by original sin and its dread consequences. This is a great time for us to reflect on the sorrows and the sufferings that Our Blessed Mother went through. Mater Dolorosa. You became the Mother of a Son who is almighty, eternal and infinite in all perfections, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. All souls belong to you and your Son. What a difference between the woeful prediction of Simeon and the joyous tidings of the archangel Gabriel announcing the greatness of the Redeemer of mankind! Saint Elizabeth received the Holy Spirit through your intervention, in order to teach us that we must make use of you as our Mediatrix with your Divine Son, if we wish to obtain the Holy Spirit. Through you I hope to reach the heavenly Kingdom. Mary, My Mother, how shall I stand before my Judge at the day of judgment? If we could not say that you are the Mother of God for having given a body to the Son of God, then we could neither adore this Body; nor would we have been redeemed by the sacrifice of this Body on the cross, nor would we be united to the divinity in receiving this Body in the Eucharist. If you had part in the work of the Redemption, then you also had part in all those graces which were prepared for us in view of the merits of Jesus for our salutation. In doing so you uttered the most gracious act of humility that ever fell from human lips, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word." My imitation of both Jesus and you depends upon my response to the amount of grace that God sees fit to give me. September 14, 2022 Team ICM Faith / Spirituality. They are God's servants, but you are His Mother. But you help Christians also by your prayers. There is no closer bond of love among relationships than that which exists between a mother and her son. Since Jesus has given you charge of the dispensing of His graces, I know that you are most eager to use this power to help me. When your cousin Saint Elizabeth greeted you as blessed among women, you answered, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid" (Luke 1, 46). Thus you became in some way the source of that grace which Jesus would pour forth over all mankind. I want to take devotion to you seriously. After the birth of your Divine Son, this grace grew in splendor within you as it daily united you more closely with your God. Mary, Mother of God, make my interior life of union with Jesus more like your own. You know that you are the well-beloved Daughter of the Father, you embrace the Son; you are united to the Holy Spirit with a simplicity, a confidence, and a delicacy of love which belong to you alone, for in you alone there cannot be the remembrance of a moment in which you were opposed to God. You were troubled not at the appearance of the angel, but at what he said. Holy Cards will continue to be added as our collections align with Feast Days of the Saints in our collection. 16, 24). Make me a fervent apostle of the Eucharist. When God decreed the incarnation of the Word, His very own Son, through you alone, you had a place in the same plan as Jesus. But in you they saw a soul whose sanctity surpassed that of angels and of men, a soul which would glorify God more perfectly than any other creature ever had glorified Him, or ever would glorify Him. But with the same humility with which you had conceived Him, you consented to the supreme loss of your God. God has created nature and all the wondrous functions of the human body. When He changed the water to wine, He did your bidding as God, since as man He could not perform miracles. You learned to read the sacred books by yourself and tried to penetrate their hidden meaning. Your redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's redeeming wisdom. Your Heart is a refuge for sinners, for you are the Mother of Mercy, who has never been known to turn away any one who came to seek your aid. 1. It was not enough for the Infinite Lover of souls to free us from the slavery of hell by His Passion and death and to bestow upon us His body and blood, soul and divinity. Through your prayers you will obtain forgiveness for my past negligence. John took my place on Calvary and you became, in his person, my Mother. God sent Gabriel, one of His glorious archangels, to deliver the most important message in the history of mankind, announcing the coming of the Savior of the world and the selection of you to be His Mother. You know all our needsneeds of body and needs of soulinfinitely better than a mother. December 12, 2021: "Our Lady of Guadalupe came to be the Mother of the Americas, to announce the new birth of Jesus Christ among the peoples and nations of the New World. The Heart of Jesus was a pure Heart, symbolized by the light that St. Margaret Mary saw streaming round it. You are the immaculate Virgin whom the Son Himself chose to make His Mother. You are far more than an instrument of God's mercy towards us. This is but a reminder that you are equally interested in providing for all your children in all their needs of soul and body. You really had the right to offer Jesus to His Heavenly Father in this mystery. "Since the 16th century Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. You brought me forth to the divine life. Elizabeth proclaimed that you were the Mother of Christ and declared you blessed among women because you were the most holy dwelling of the Eternal God. The holier a person is and the greater the intimacy of his union with God, the greater also is the power of his prayers. Jesus did this in union with you. You experienced a sea of bitterness in your life so that you might be an example to us in our sufferings and so that we might learn from your own sorrow to sympathize with others in theirs. Mary, Mother of God, humility is the virtue you especially practised from childhood. Within your humble home in the little town of Nazareth, the Holy Spirit willed to perform a miracle that was the masterpiece of infinite powerthe Incarnation of the Son of God. May God dwell in me and may I live to Him alone through frequent Holy Communion and still more frequent prayer so that God may direct my whole lifemy thoughts, words and actionsto His greater honor and glory. Your intimate union with your Divine Son is the reason for your power with Him. 1. Mary, My Mother, you were never without grace. Even if I have committed all possible sins, let me never lose confidence in you, for I know I shall always find your Heart filled with mercy The Son of God has His justice, but you, the Mother, have only your mercy. Mary, My Mother, you were not obliged by the Law of Moses to present and ransom your firstborn Son. The more holy you are, the greater is your sweetness and compassion toward sinners who have recourse to you with the desire to amend their lives. You "found grace with God" to restore salvation to all men. He can and does suspend the laws of nature for those who have faith in His goodness and entreat Him in fervent prayer. I ask this with special earnestness from you who are the Health of the Sick. You are all-merciful that you may obtain for me pardon and mercy. Mary, Mother of God, I pour out to you the sorrows of my own troubled heart. You nourished Him, clothed Him, educated Him. Satan is more humiliated at seeing himself under the heel of the lowliest of creatures than at feeling himself crushed by God's almighty arm. What must have been your anguish when you looked at the sacred body of Jesus as the long nails were being driven into His hands and feet! Mary, by your humility, you became the Mother of your Creator. It has been reproduced many times in copies and in book illustrations. You beheld His arms and feet roughly extended on the hard wood of the cross. I may address myself to the saints for favors of various kinds, but my prayer must always pass through your hands if it is to reach the throne of grace and draw down the divine blessing. You saw the heavy cross placed on His bent shoulders. It was possible for God to confer it, and He did confer it! Mary, Mother of God, your divine maternity is most cherished by you, because it is a token of God's special love for you. A Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows on her feast day, September 15: O most holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ: by the overwhelming grief you experienced when you witnessed the martyrdom, the crucifixion, and death of your divine Son, look upon me with eyes of compassion, and awaken in my heart a tender . He ordered most perfectly His whole creation, for He is the true fountain and highest source of light and wisdom. God inflamed no other heart, after that of the Heart of His Son, with His love so much as yours. Mary, My Mother, through your prayers may I be blessed with a keen understanding of the ways of God. I need you desperately. Ask Him to favor me with a ray of His brightness to enlighten the darkness of sin and ignorance in which I was born. God said to the serpent: "Because thou hast done this, I will place enmities between thee and the Woman, between thy seed and her Seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel" (Gen. 3.14). "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. How consoling to know that I have Christ, my elder Brother, "always living to make intercession for me," and you, my Mother, ever pleading for me before the throne of God. Filled with grief, you saw how the disciples removed the nails from the Redeemer's hands and feet, extracted the thorns from His head, and took Him down from the cross. 3. It was you who nourished and prepared the holy Victim who was offered to the Eternal Father in expiation of our sins. What greater wonder could the world behold, than a woman become the Mother of God, and a God clothed in human flesh? The presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple was like the Offertory, for you offered to the Heavenly Father this "material" for the sacrificethe body and blood of your little Son. Each time Jesus becomes present in the hands of the priest, the Life given to us by the words of consecration comes originally from. 1. In order to free yourself from legal uncleanness and to give us an example of obedience to God's law, you submitted to the ceremony of the purification and made the offering demanded of the poortwo pigeons or turtledoves. The climax of that sorrow came when the innocent Victim for the sins of mankind was given, dead, into your arms. God had raised you to the highest dignity in His power in choosing you to be the Mother of His Son. Because I am arrogant, it makes me rebel against God's law, the law forbidding me that abuse of liberty which insults Him. Jesus is the only Mediator of justice, and by His merits He obtains for us all graces and salvation but you are the Mediatrix of grace. I consecrate myself entirely to your Immaculate Heart. We ask you to procure for us, by your prayers the great grace of final perseverance so that those who are joined to honor you in the kingdom of your Son on earth may be together always in heaven. Above all, I beg of you to secure for me in the our of death the grace of final perseverance: that triumphant grace which crowns the measure of God's rifts here below and which is followed by the possession of God in heaven. In so doing I simply imitate God who gave Himself and His Son to us through you. Mary, My Mother, what joy for you never to have been, even for a single instant, in the state of enmity toward God! You remained there working for God, meditating on His holy Law, praying and praising His divine Goodness. Give me the same virtues in my state of lifea will inflamed with the desire that God's Will be done and a mind steeped in the knowledge of what that Will is. Our Lady of Lourdes, We pray to you especially for our own conversion and that of all sinners. At the Annunciation you received Jesus on earth; it was proper that He should receive you in Heaven. Through your hands I offer myself with Jesus during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In your six apparitions at Fatima you made repeated demands for penance and reparation. Their children also belong to God, for they are His gift. In this time of crisis there is need that we hasten to you for aid, strength and direction. This loving union will sustain me no matter how heavy my cross. Your life, like that of your Divine Son, was a daily crucifixion and martyrdom, but on Good Friday that crucifixion reached its climax. Make me your faithful child. You brought Him into the world that He might be King, according to the words of the archangel: "And of His kingdom there shall be no end." You possessed a perfect faith, a firm hope, a burning charity, a deep humility, a purity greater than that of the angels. Teach me to utter your most holy name that it may fill my heart with hope and burning love for you and that loving you I might reach the Light of the World. He was preparing you for your final separation from Him at the foot of the cross. Our Lady of Compassion Our Lady of Compassion (Nuestra Senora de la Piedad) The convent of Our Lady of La Piedad dates back to the year 1595. ", Your Heart is a shrine of peace, for it is the Heart of the Mother of the Prince of Peace, a Heart never for a moment disturbed by evil passions, a Heart whose gifts to mankind are mercy, love and peace. You, who were yourself the Queen of Prophets, saw that from that moment "the sword of sorrow" would enter your soul and remain there during the rest of your days. Let not my sinfulness and human weakness stand in the way of my receiving the graces I need for the sanctification and salvation of my soul. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the Immaculate Conception. Reign over my mind and heart and will and body, so that I may belong completely to Jesus through you. We celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th. You did not try to square both predictions. I fix my gaze on that star and wish never to turn from it. Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart. Your name means Sea of Bitterness. There the poor find aid; the sick and needy, remedy, the afflicted, consolation; the doubting, counsel; the distressed, help. Gazing sorrowfully on His lifeless body, you watched the soldier drive the spear into His Heart. The divine maternity itself, more than any particular privilege, is a mark of God's unequalled love for you. Amen. 2. You are our Mother, the Mother of all the living. It is but a symbol of the endless victories which you are to win over him to the last day. I cannot advance in the path of sanctity without humility, which is the heart and soul of virtue. He sanctified your marriage with St. Joseph so that it might be an example for all Christian marriages. The Church venerates many holy virgins, martyrs and other saints, but no one of them has merited or obtained your title of Holy Virgin, Virgin most pure. Today I am filled with joy at the thought that we are united with those first clients of yours, and in union with them we greet you, saying: O beauty of Carmel, glory of Libanus, purest of lilies, mystical rose in the flowering garden of the Church. For He was everything to you, and all else was nothing without Him. Because you were to be the Mother of God, original sin, which like all Eve's daughters you should have contracted, could not touch you. Though a creature, you gave birth to the Creator. Mary, My Mother, I rejoice with you in the joyful expectation of your little Son. But how careless I am about my spiritual health! Everything that God may send me, or permit in my life, whether favorable or unfavorable, sweet or bittereven illness, is acceptable to me, for I have resolved, after your example to conform myself to the Divine Will in all things. Your Heart remained spotless as a lily, and you are, therefore, justly called the "Queen of Virgins. Help them to become worthy of this blessing through their own prayers and good example. Mary, My Mother, help me to perform all my actions through youto ask through your intercession the graces I need in order to imitate you, and to go through you to Jesus. I want to love you with all my heart that I may in some way merit that you love me in return. Help me to love God with my whole strengthso that I may consecrate undividedly, unreservedly and continually to His service, my life, my health and all I am and have. Teach me to desire ardently all that is pleasing to God, to seek after it prudently, to accept it truthfully and to do it perfectly, for the praise and glory of God. I earnestly wish to make atonement for all of them. But, because you surpass all other creatures in holiness and in the closeness of your union with Jesus and. Mary, Mother of God, your Heart is a shrine of holiness, into which the demon of sin has never entered; whose sanctuary was never once defiled by the least touch of evil, whose altar was the chosen resting place of the Holy Spirit. If I put my trust in you, I shall be saved. Down through the ages numberless people have recovered health of body and of spirit through your intercession! All your privileges increased your power to love God. Though receiving all you obtain through Jesus Christ, because you pray and ask for it in the Name of Jesus, yet whatever graces we receive, come to us through your intercession. 2. Wicked lust, the source and occasion of sin, flowing directly from original Sill and inclining to evil, drags me along in spite of myselfalthough always voluntarilyto personal sins, sins that I know only too well are my own. 3. You are full of grace, the Lord's free gift, and it overflows in you filling your soul with every virtue and perfection. Mary, Mother of God, I believe that divine grace is absolutely necessary for the performing of any act that is meritorious for eternal life. The Virgin of Vladimir, also known as Vladimir Mother of God, Our Lady of Vladimir (Russian: , Ukrainian: ), and the Theotokos of Vladimir (Greek: ), is a 12th-century Byzantine icon depicting the Virgin and Child and an early . Indeed, all were awaiting your Son: the world, to gain rest and peace, the angels, to see God's plans fulfilled; the Heavenly Father Himself to behold His created Image: and all this longing was united in your heart. You exercise your queenly dominion over the minds, the hearts, the wills and even over the bodies of your subjects. May I remember always your sorrows on Calvary, through which you begot us to God and became the co-redemptrix of our race. In this mystery Jesus is plainly a Victim, and not so plainly a Priest; He could not better communicate His spirit of priesthood than by allowing you, His Mother, to present His outward offering He could find no worthier altar on which to offer Himself than your immaculate hands. Grant that we all may heed your warning, for only through penance and reparation can we blot out sin and the insult it afflicts on God. Who can understand the joy you feel to be able to give happiness to the whole world? We have the sublime dignity of being children of God by adoption; Jesus alone is His Son by nature. But God has willed that you should be exempted from this general rule because, by an entirely singular privilege, you completely overcame sin by your Immaculate Conception. Your willingness to suffer and to bear your cross in imitation of His own resignation to the will of God, made you especially dear to Him. Your Child, becoming the King of Martyrs, would make you their Queen. They then left a small offering of silver required by the Law of Moses. Never were you guilty of the least fault; never did you offer the least resistance to grace. Of course, you never thought of yourself as a sinner for humility is truth, and you knew that you had never offended God. No one ever carried out the teaching of your Son with greater exactness than you; hence His words refer to you perfectly: "Everyone therefore who hears these my words and acts upon them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house on rock" (Matt. You could not accompany the Apostles while they fulfilled the duties of their ministry, but in silence and solitude, by the power of your prayers and the fervor of your charity, you were the master-missionary of them all. Yours is a queenship of dominion. Like you, he was of the tribe of Juda and the family of David. Give me your good counsel, so that following it humbly I may ever please God, find true happiness on this earth and eternal life in the world to come. I firmly believe that He will hear my prayer also, if this should be the Will of God. After the Sacred Heart of Jesus, never was there a heart more pure and more holy. The Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dec. 18The Espousals of the Virgin Mary, Jan. 23Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feb. 2Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate (Our Lady of Lourdes), Feb. 11The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, March 25The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sept. 15Our Lady of Good Counsel, April 26Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, Saturday after AscensionOur Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, May 13Mary, Help of Christians, May 24Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, May 31The Queenship of Mary, May 31Mary, Virgin Mother of Grace, June 9Our Lady of Perpetual Help, June 27Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, July 2Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary, July 17Our Lady of the Snows, Aug. 5Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, Aug. 13The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Aug. 15The Immaculate Heart of Mary, Aug. 22Our Lady, Health of the Sick, Saturday before the last Sunday in Aug.Our Lady of Consolation, Saturday after the Feast of St. Augustine (Aug. 28)Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sept. 8The Most Holy Name of Mary, Sept. 12Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sept. 15Our Lady of Mercy (Our Lady of Ransom), Sept. 24Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Oct. 7Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oct. 11Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oct. 16Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nov. 21Mary, Mother of Divine Providence, Saturday before 3rd Sunday of Nov. Feast, December 8 (Novena, Nov. 29-Dec. 7). The foundation of this doctrine is to be found in Sacred Scripture where we are taught that God, the Creator of all things, after the sad fall of Adam, addressed the serpent in words which the Church applies to you, "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head" (Gen. 3.15). PRAYER: O most holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ: by the overwhelming grief you experienced when you witnessed the martyrdom, the crucifixion, and death of your divine Son, look upon me with eyes of compassion, and awaken in my heart a tender commiseration for those sufferings, as well as a sincere detestation of my sins, in order . Everything inside and outside of me should reflect His divine perfections. Thus an angel appeared to Joseph and said, "Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. He has given me. Indeed, I will suffer with joy if I realize that Christ is suffering with me and in me and that He sends me the cross only to trace His image in my soul by uniting me closely with Himself. The seven sorrows are: The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) I believe with the Church that from the great treasury of graces that Jesus has merited for us, nothing comes to us, by the will of God. 1. Be a mother to me and save me. Our Lady of Sorrows The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows flourished in the Middle Ages, and the hymn Stabat Mater was composed for it. I am most grateful for such devoted love and sympathy. I need virtues, especially charity and humility and purity. By your Motherhood you acquired a mother's power over your Divine Son, and you saw yourself raised above all the angels and saints. It was a life of concealment, and yet Jesus is infinite, the light of the angels and of the whole world. May I always be most grateful by striving to grow in this divine life. You did not-abandon Jesus as the apostles did; you remained with Him until He expired. What a divine impression Jesus left upon you, His Mother! I see you offering Him to the heavenly Father in the temple for our salvation. The picture you imprinted on the cloak of the Indian at Guadalupe was the image of the Immaculate Conception. With you all is pure, virginal, immaculate In you there is no inclination to evilno impure thoughts or desires. But saints and writers of the Church speak of devotion to you as a sign of perseverance in good and a happy death. She humbly exclaimed, "How have I deserved this happiness that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" Through the mystery of your Visitation enlighten my mind with divine truth, warm my heart with heavenly love; strengthen me to win the victory over my evil inclinations and the power of evil. May I have more of their love for you so that I may experience more of their joy in being devoted to you. Finally, they remind me of the everlasting glory of all the saints in Heaven united with your own glory and that of your Son. Mary, My Mother, how kindly you provided for the needs of this newly-married couple! But that my devotion may be acceptable and my homage pleasing, let me endeavor to maintain within my soul, as much as possible the spotlessness of your purity and try to walk in your footsteps humbly and gently.
