Mar. 26 - Living consecrated

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Words are easy to say, but living in the Word of God, keeping it and pondering as Mary did so as to live in Him requires God’s Grace and our cooperation. Yesterday some of us prayed the Act of Consecration to Jesus through Mary, and renewed our Baptismal promises, consecrating ourselves as we were consecrated in that Sacrament. Today we begin anew to “live” by God’s Grace as Mary lived on earth – an ordinary life on the outside but with ever growing faith, hope, and Charity within.

As we approach Holy Week, may we open ourselves to the graces God has for us, through Mary. Please let us continue to pray for one another, and all those in most need of His Mercy.

O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in your servants, in the spirit of holiness, in the fullness of your power, in the perfection of your ways, in the truth of your virtues, in the communion of your mysteries. Rule over every adverse power, in your Spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.

 

[hazcompat]

Ephesians 3:14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, 15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name. 16 In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self, 17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, 18 with all God’s holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.

Peace

 

[hazcompat]

To The Most Holy and undivided Trinity, to the Manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified, to the fruitful Virginity of the most blessed and most glorious Mary, ever Virgin, and to the holiness of all the Saints be ascribed everlasting praise, honor, power and glory, by all creatures; and to us be granted the forgiveness of all our sins, world without end.
R. Amen.
V. Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father.
R. And blessed are the breasts which nourished Christ the Lord.

Our Father. Hail Mary.

MOST clement Jesus, I thank Thee with all my heart. Be propitious to me, a most vile sinner. I offer this action to Thy Divine Heart to be emended and perfected, to the praise and the glory of Thy Most Holy Name and of Thy Most Blessed Mother, for the salvation of my soul and of the entirety of Thy Church. Amen.

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

Ephesians 3:14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, 15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name. 16 In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self, 17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, 18 with all God’s holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.

Peace

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks so much for this excerpt from Ephesians. It is my favorite letter of St. Paul, and one in which I believe we can hear our call to holiness so clearly! This morning, I went back to the paragraphs in True Devotion which treat of the “interior practices”, paragraphs, 257 - 265. I was especially blessed by the following words at the end of paragraph 260:

…Remember what I told you before, that Mary is the great, unique mould of God, designed to make living images of God at little expense and in a short time. Anyone who finds this mould and casts himself into it, is soon transformed into our Lord because it is the true likeness of him.

No one knew the love of Christ as well as Mary, and we do well, continuing to behold our Mother, casting ourselves into her that we may be transformed into our Lord – to be filled with the utter fullness of God as she is!