Mar. 14 - Wk 2 - Day 4 - "Seeking understanding of Mary and praying to the Holy Spirit for that grace"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion , Chapter 2 on “Marks of authentic devotion” :

1. Fifth, true devotion to Mary is disinterested. It inspires us to seek God alone in his Blessed Mother and not ourselves. The true subject of Mary does not serve his illustrious Queen for selfish gain. He does not serve her for temporal or eternal well-being but simply and solely because she has the right to be served and God alone in her. He loves her not so much because she is good to him or because he expects something from her, but simply because she is lovable. That is why he loves and serves her just as faithfully in weariness and dryness of soul as in sweet and sensible fervour. He loves her as much on Calvary as at Cana. How pleasing and precious in the sight of God and his holy Mother must these servants of Mary be, who serve her without any self-seeking. How rare they are nowadays! It is to increase their number that I have taken up my pen to write down what I have been teaching with success both publicly and in private in my missions for many years.

How grateful I am to God for inspiring these words in his humble priest, St. Louis de Montfort! How grateful I am to St. Louis for being one of those “disinterested servants of Jesus and Mary” to persevere in seeking understanding of Mary and praying to the Holy Spirit for that Grace!

It reminds me of this morning’s Gospel for Mass in which Jesus tells us:

“Ask and it will be given to you…” (Mt 7: 7-12)

Litany of the Holy Spirit: HERE
Ave Maris Stella HERE
Five decades of the Holy Rosary – praying with Faith, each “Our Father” slowly to listen , as Mary does with a humble and unselfish heart.

 

[hazcompat]

There is, actually, only one person in all humanity of
whom God has one picture, and in whom there is a perfect
conformity between what He wanted her to be and what she
is, and that is His Own Mother. Most of us are a minus sign,
in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the Heavenly
Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The Ideal that
God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and
the copy are perfect; she is all that was foreseen, planned,
and dreamed. The melody of her life is played, just as it was
written. Mary was thought, conceived, and planned as the
equal sign between ideal and history, thought and reality,
hope and realization.

The World’s First Love
BY THE MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN, PH.D., D.D.

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks again, for more beautiful and true words from Ven. Fulton J. Sheen!

How truly, this holy priest of God wrote of her – how well he listened to the Scriptures, praying to the Holy Spirit and sharing the Truth he heard through God’s Word.

How can it be that so many neglect to honor Mary in today’s world? An enemy has done this! The evil one heard the Lord God’s Words:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel. (Gen 3:15)

His days are numbered but Mary our Mother, full of Grace, and Immaculate from her Conception is so One with her Son and so filled with the power of His Holy Spirit, she could promise: in the end, her Immaculate Heart would triumph. God is Love and He has filled His Mother with that Love which conquers all evil.

Mary is – as Ven. Sheen described her – " …a perfect conformity between what He wanted her to be and what she is…The ideal God that God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh…"

How can we not love her? It seems to me, most of us love ourselves too much and that is why we have so little time for her – and what is worse, so little time for the Lord Himself. Lent is a good opportunity to look to Jesus and Mary: first, this week to pray to the Holy Spirit, especially to understand Mary! She is totally human so that even with our own weakened intellects and weakened wills we can see how God has done wonderful things for her. By God’s Grace, we can appreciate how pleasing Mary is to God!

He gave her to us as Mother and Model. He told us: “Behold your Mother” so that we would look upon her to see what He can do in us, if we say our “Yes” to Him as she did. We will never be “exactly” the same as Mary – She is unique, but we strive to imitate her total gift of herself to Him. By God’s Grace, let us continue to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us understand Mary that we may also come to see the unique person we are called to be – participating in His Life, so that like we too can sing with Mary: My soul glorifies the Lord!