Mar. 13 - Wk 2 - Day 3 - "to acquire a greater understanding of Mary"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

When we hear with the ears of our hearts, in prayer, Jesus’ words:

“Behold your Mother.” (in Jn19:27)

What can we say or do? If we keep listening to John’s Gospel, we notice that John the Beloved Disciple standing next to Mary did not answer Jesus with words but he records in the Gospel what he did:

And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. (in Jn19:27).

How can we take Mary into our homes as John did? Pope St. John Paul II pondered those words of John and saw that in Greek (the langauge in which John wrote his Gospel) the words literally meant more than “took her into his home”. The literal translation is “he took her into his own” and Pope St. JPII believed this meant John took her into his own life and into his being. That interpretation has meant much more to me since I first read it.

Mary was given to us by Jesus to help us live as Mary lived: Remaining in His Love. By God’s Grace may we, like John draw closer to our Mother today and “take her into our lives” that we too may live and remain in Jesus.

Litany of the Holy Spirit: see HERE

Ave Maris Stella: see HERE

5 decades of the Rosary for greater understanding of Mary

 

[hazcompat]

IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
REDEMPTORIS MATER
INTRODUCTION

1. The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:4-6)
   With these words of the Apostle Paul, which the Second Vatican Council takes up at the beginning of its treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary,1 I too wish to begin my reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church. For they are words which celebrate together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer was born, and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of the "fullness of time."2
   This “fullness” indicates the moment fixed from all eternity when the Father sent his Son “that
   whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). It denotes the blessed moment when the Word that “was with God…became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:1, 14), and made himself our brother. It marks the moment when the Holy Spirit, who had already infused the fullness of grace into Mary of Nazareth, formed in her virginal womb the human nature of Christ. This “fullness” marks the moment when, with the entrance of the eternal into time, time itself is redeemed, and being filled with the mystery of Christ becomes definitively “salvation time.” Finally, this “fullness” designates the hidden beginning of the Church’s journey. In the liturgy the Church salutes Mary of Nazareth as the Church’s own beginning,3 for in the event of the Immaculate Conception the Church sees projected, and anticipated in her most noble member, the saving grace of Easter. And above all, in the Incarnation she encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined: he who is the Church’s Lord and Head and she who, uttering the first fiat of the New Covenant, prefigures the Church’s condition as spouse and mother.

Jesus Christ Is Our Father’s Simple Plan For Salvation Since Before Time Began.

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks so much for posting the words of St. John Paul II from the Introduction to his encyclical on “The Mother of the Redeemer” - the subtitle to this encyclical is so important as well: “On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church”. Jesus is our Way our Truth and our Life, and He came to us through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Pope St. John Paul II has been and is an encouragement to so many persons and I believe he expressed himself so beautifully as a devoted Son of Mary after the Image of Jesus. Like St. Louis de Montfort whose treatise Pope St.JPII read as a young man and later wrote about in his book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” saying the reading of St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” was a turning point in his young life.

Both St. Louis de Montfort and Pope St. John Paul II loved Scripture and we see even in his Introduction how Pope St.JPII draws from God’s Revelation in Scripture for the Truth in seeking as we are seeking this week “to acquire a greater understanding of Mary”. May God enable us to continue to listen to Jesus as Mary did.

One of my favorite quotes from St. John of the Cross is: “God spoke One Word and His Name is Jesus!”

 

[patricius79]

In the liturgy the Church salutes Mary of Nazareth as the Church’s own beginning,3 for in the event of the Immaculate Conception the Church sees projected, and anticipated in her most noble member, the saving grace of Easter. And above all, in the Incarnation she encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined: he who is the Church’s Lord and Head and she who, uttering the first fiat of the New Covenant, prefigures the Church’s condition as spouse and mother.

Beautiful. Saint JPII sounds like St. Louis.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear patricius,

Thanks for your “faith-full” heart and your reply. Yes, I had the same sense of St. John Paul II’s appreciation of St. Louis de Montfort’s love for Jesus through Mary – seeing so clearly by faith – as St.JPII wrote and you put into bold in quoting him:

… And above all, in the Incarnation she encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined

When God gives the Church the grace to hear His Truth in the writings of the saints, we really need to receive His Grace seriously, and pray to live and “Remain in Jesus” as Mary did on this earth.

Mary, Mother and Model fot the Church, pray for us! Jesus, we trust in You!

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear KBS and Stephie,

Thanks to you both, as well, for your “faith-full” hearts. St. John Paul II like St. Louis De Montfort and all the Saints have learned from Mary as she learned from God to be like Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart. The more I ponder Jesus’ words:

“Behold your Mother”

the more I see her at the foot of His Cross listening to the depths of His Humble Heart and continuing to show us how to love Him and to remain in His Love – now and for all eternity by His Grace !

 

[patricius79]

Yes, we need to pray for the grace of perseverance in prayer to Jesus through Mary.

I love this passage from Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical “Iucunda Semper”:

1. Nor can our prayers fail to ascend to Him as a sweet savour, commended by the prayers of the Virgin. And He it is who, all-benign, invites her: “Let thy voice sound in My ears, for thy voice is sweet.” For this cause do we repeatedly celebrate those glorious titles of her ministry as Mediatrix. Her do we greet who found favour with God, and who was in a signal manner filled with grace by Him so that the superabundance thereof might overflow upon all men; her, united with the Lord by the most intimate of all conjunction; her who was blessed among women, and who “alone took away the curse and bore the blessing” (St. Thomas)-that fruit of her womb, that happy fruit, in which all the nations of the earth are blessed. Her do we invoke, finally, as Mother of God; and in virtue of a dignity so sublime what graces from her may we not promise to ourselves, sinners, in life and in the agonies of the end?
   http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-x...enc_08091894_iucunda-semper-expectatione.html

 

[MariaChristi]

Thanks again, dear patricius, for quoting Pope Leo XIII’s words, reminding us of the praise we owe our Mother Mary, for her faithfulness to God. Moreover, what everlasting thanks we owe to God for sending His only Begotten Son to be conceived in Mary’s womb, by the power of His Holy Spirit, that Jesus would suffer and die for our sins!

St, Bernard’s words ring so true:

“De Maria, numquam satis” – Latin words meaning: “Of Mary, never enough!”

By God’s Grace may we continue to learn from Mary, as Mary learned from Jesus – that we too may become Meek and Humble of Heart,