May 2 - First Saturday of Reparation - "To Whom shall we go?"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is the First Saturday of May and the Gospel for this third Saturday of Easter contains the words in the title of this thread: “Lord to Whom shall we go?”

Seeing many walk away, after hearing Jesus speak of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, Jesus turned to His Disciples and asked, “Will you also go away?” Peter answered: "Lord to Whom shall we go? You have the words of Eternal Life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6-20 - 69)

On this First Saturday of May, it seems to me that many have walked away from Jesus in our own time and He continues to ask those to whom He has spoken His Sacred Words of Eternal Life: "Will you also go away? Before dying on His Cross He told us all:

Behold Your Mother

Mary was the First Tabernacle for the Word Made Flesh and Jesus gave her to us all to be our Mother and Model. Many have walked away from His Word, His Eucharist, and His Mother as well. They have left all three of these beautiful gifts, because they gave up their faith in God to believe in satan, the tempter, or in themselves or the world it seems to me.

Both Jesus and Mary appeared to Sister Luica in 1925 and asked for Reparation to the Immaculate Heart:

Lucia was a postulant in the Convent of St. Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain when she had the apparition of our Blessed Mother. She was standing over a cloud of light with the Child Jesus at her side. The Blessed Virgin put one hand on Lucia’s shoulder, while her other hand sustained her Immaculate Heart that was surrounded with thorns. The Child Jesus said: "Have compassion on the Heart of your Blessed Mother. It is surrounded with thorns that ungrateful men pierce each moment, and there is no one that is willing to offer an act of reparation to take the thorns away."

Our Lady immediately said to Lucia: "Look, my daughter. My Heart is surrounded with thorns that ungrateful men pierce unceasingly with their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me and announce that for all those, who for five consecutive first Saturdays, confess, receive Holy Communion, pray the Holy Rosary and accompany me for15 minutes by meditating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary with the intention to do reparation, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with the graces needed for salvation."

If you missed the live-streamed video yesterday of the Re-Consecration of the United States to Mary, Mother of the Church by Archbishop Gomez in Los Angeles, you can watch today after the 8:30 am Mass at either facebook.com/DioceseChas (be careful to choose the Catholic Diocese and not Episcopal) or at youtube.com/DioceseChas.

Mass readings for today are HERE

 

[hazcompat]

May 2 - Our Lady of Sorrows (Italy, 1895) - St Athanasius of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church (d. 373 or 374)​

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Making Mary Known and Loved

To battle Satan, count on Mary and the Rosary​

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In the sixth chapter of St Mark’s Gospel, we find the account of Jesus sending out the Twelve, two by two, on mission. The first thing he gave them, Mark tells us, was “authority over unclean spirits.” And the first pastoral act that they performed was to “drive out many demons.”

When I was coming of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was common, even in seminaries, to dismiss such talk as primitive superstition—or perhaps to modernize it and make it a literary device, using symbolic language evocative of the struggle with evil in the abstract. But the problem with that approach is that it just does not do justice to the Bible. The biblical authors knew all about “evil” in both its personal and institutional expressions, but they also knew about a level of spiritual dysfunction that lies underneath both of those more ordinary dimensions. They knew about the world of fallen or morally compromised spirits. Jesus indeed battled sin in individual hearts as well as the sin that dwelt in institutional structures, but he also struggled with a dark power more fundamental and more dangerous than those.

What, or better, who is this threatening spiritual force? It is a devil, a fallen or morally compromised angel. Imagine a truly wicked person who is also very smart, very talented and very enterprising. Now raise that person to a far higher pitch of ontological perfection, and you will have some idea of what a devil is like.

Jesus has entrusted to his Church the means to apply this victory, the weapons, if you will, to win the spiritual warfare. These are the sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Confession), the Mass, the Bible, personal prayer, the rosary, etc. Jesus sent out the Twelve to battle dark spirits. He still empowers his church to do the same. Don’t be reluctant to use the weapons—and the healing balms—that he has given.

Bishop Robert Barron

July 25, 2012

Adapted from Word on Fire

Read more on mariedenazareth.com:​

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Stephie and QuietTrad,

Thanks again, to you both for your faith-full and loving hearts which are a testimony to your love for Jesus through Mary. It is so important today to honor Mary as Jesus asked us in His Words from the Cross, “Behold your Mother.” He told Sister Lucia to “Have Compassion” on the Heart of Mary – which we try to do in offering Reparation on the First Saturday of each Month.

Hopefully many were able to watch the Rededication of Canada and the USA to Mary, “Mother of the Church”, yesterday. My husband and I watched it live at 3 pm yesterday led by Archbishop Gomez in the Los Angeles Cathedral, it was beautiful. The Canadian Bishops were to Rededicate their nation to Mary at the same time and hopefully that was as beautiful for all Canadians .

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks for your reply. The first time I heard the word “weapon” used in connection with the Rosary was in a quote from St. Padre Pio. I was surprised by it and yet I realize now more and more how we are truly in “spiritual combat” if we are truly to follow Jesus on this earth.

In the first book of the Bible, we hear God say to the snake-satan:

Then the LORD God said to the snake: Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild; On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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: 14-15)

The quote you posted from Bishop Barron, was from July 25, 2012 – almost 8 years ago –
it seems to me the battle rages now more fierce than at that time! Satan does not sleep; he continually seeks to lull believers to sleep! I was a bit surprised that Bishop Barron did not mention Mary specifically for she went into battle with Jesus on Calvary and she is our Mediatrix with Him Who has won the Victory by His Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. He came to us humbly in His First Coming, through Mary, and He will come again in triumph through her Immaculate Heart in His Second Coming.

Mary truly is Mother of the Church – "Fair as the Moon, Bright as the sun, Terrible as an Army set in battle array!’

It was indescribably beautiful to my husband and me, to experience the reverence and humility of Archbishop Gomez as he led the USA in Reconsecrating the nation to Mary, the Mother of the Church on May 1. There was authentic tenderness in his voice and in each gesture as he prayed and nodded toward the image of May and the Crucifix.

The Canadian Bishops Rededicated their nation to Mary at the same time, and I trust they too were blessed. May the Lord of the Harvest send laborers into His Harvest! By His Grace, may we labor and do battle in working for the true fruit Mary bore first. We are now her offspring, taken out of Adam and born anew in Christ to crush the head of the serpent with Jesus through Mary.