"My dear children, I am in travail over you...until my Son is perfectly formed in you" (cf Gal 4 4:19)

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we come near the end of St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom he urges us to listen to the truths he has shared with us, in Chapter 17: “The greatest means of all, and the most wonderful of all secrets for obtaining and preserving divine Wisdom is a loving and genuine devotion to the Blessed Virgin.”

By God’s Grace let us listen today with the ears of our hearts, learning to do the Truth we hear, and to build up the Body of Christ, as God’s Word urges us (cf Eph 4: 15-16)

1. From these truths we must conclude:
   1. that it is futile for us to compliment ourselves on being the children of God and disciples of Wisdom, if we are not children of Mary;
   2. that to be numbered among the elect we must have a loving and sincere devotion to our Lady, so that she may dwell in us and plant the roots of her virtues in us;
   3. that Mary must beget us in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in us, nurturing us towards the perfection and the fulness of his age (Eph 4.13), so that she may say more truthfully than St. Paul, “My dear children, I am in travail over you afresh until Jesus Christ my Son is perfectly formed in you” (Gal 4.19).
2. If I were asked by someone seeking to honour our Lady, “What does genuine devotion to her involve?” I would answer briefly that it consists in a full appreciation of the privileges and dignity of our Lady; in expressing our gratitude for her goodness to us; in zealously promoting devotion to her; in constantly appealing for her help; in being completely dependent on her; and in placing firm reliance and loving confidence in her motherly goodness.
3. We must beware of those false devotions to our Lady which the devil makes use of to deceive and ruin many souls. I shall not describe them here. I shall only say that genuine devotion to Mary must be sincere, free from hypocrisy and superstition; loving, not lukewarm or scrupulous; constant, not fickle or unfaithful; holy, without being presumptuous or extravagant.

“O Jesus living in Mary, come and live in Your servants, in the spirit of Your 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.” - Prayer of Fr. Olier S.S. (1608-1657)

 

[patricius79]

• 1. that to be numbered among the elect we must have a loving and sincere devotion to our Lady

Pope Leo XIII said that one who would seek Christ’s grace without Mary’s help is like a bird trying to fly without wings.

Of course, I think he’s referring to those who have been instructed about Mary and have sufficient psychological freedom. But he’s right that even if we don’t know about Mary, we have never been given any grace without her.

It might have been St. Bonaventure who said that the world was created for Mary, and that God preserved the world, after sin, out of love for her. One has to understand all these truths–like the Scriptures–with discernment. But our souls really do need Mary as much as our bodies need the air.

Whenever I feel most lost, the thought of the Blessed Virgin comes to me and then I know that Christ will make it all well.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear patricius,

Thanks for your reply and also for your “heart”, which tells us you read and appreciated the words of St. Louis de Montfort.

Yes, you are right – all of us need to pray for God’s Grace to discern His Truth in Scripture as well as in Popes’, Fathers’ and Doctors’ of the Church and other Saints’ writings to better understand Mary’s place in God’s Plan for us. Our Mother is so beautiful and so lovable! When by God’s Grace we “Behold” her truly, it is almost beyond us to know how to love and thank her enough for all she suffered for love of God and us.

Thanks for your faithfulness to Jesus through Mary, patricius, and for your posts which encourage us all to grow in our Supernatural Faith, Hope and above all Charity.

Come Holy Spirit kindle in us the Fire of Your Love. Jesus we trust in You! Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

[patricius79]

Our Mother is so beautiful and so lovable! When by God’s Grace we “Behold” her truly, it is almost beyond us to know how to love and thank her enough for all she suffered for love of God and us.

Amen. Mary suffered so much for us–more than all the suffering combined of all the martyrs.

That is why it is simply wrong for anyone to freely and knowingly ignore their “mother in the order of grace”, as Vatican II calls Mary.

I quote this before but it is so beautiful to understand the meaning Revelation chapter 12.

Here is Pope Pius X in the Encyclical Ad Diem Illum:

1. Leaving aside charity towards God, who can contemplate the Immaculate Virgin without feeling moved to fulfill that precept which Christ called peculiarly His own, namely that of loving one another as He loved us? “A great sign,” thus the Apostle St. John describes a vision divinely sent him, appears in the heavens: “A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head” ( Apoc . xii., 1). Everyone knows that this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the stainless one who brought forth our Head. The Apostle continues: “And, being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered” ( Apoc . xii., 2). John therefore saw the Most Holy Mother of God already in eternal happiness, yet travailing in a mysterious childbirth. What birth was it? Surely it was the birth of us who, still in exile, are yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to eternal happiness. And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the Virgin from heaven above watches over us, and strives with unwearying prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect.
   Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (February 2, 1904) | PIUS X

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Patricius,

That quote is so very worthy of repeating! No wonder Pope St. Pius X is a canonized Saint of the Catholic Church! He certainly is one who like Pope St. John Paul II and all the Saints who have a tender devotion to Mary Mother of God and our Mother are with Jesus through Mary in heaven now.

Thanks again for your tender devotion and faithfulness to defending our Mother when so many seem not to understand her great Love, given to her by God, for us. Let us continue to pray for all who do not yet know Mary, who have yet to hear and obey whole-heartedly, Jesus’ words to John and to us:

Behold your Mother!

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Mark,

Thanks for your “heart” letting us know that you read and appreciated St. Louis de Montfort’s words in “The Love of Eternal Wisdom”. How beautiful it is to ponder the Truth of Mary’s Love and prayers for us until Jesus, her Son is perfectly formed in us!

Please let us pray for one another, for the Church, and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy which he gives so perfectly through Mary. Thanks again.

 

[patricius79]

Thanks again for your tender devotion and faithfulness to defending our Mother when so many seem not to understand her great Love, given to her by God, for us. Let us continue to pray for all who do not yet know Mary

Definitely. In fact, the more we draw closer to Mary, the more our hearts soften toward our neighbor.

I can’t begin to do justice to Mary and Jesus. But that okay, because they have compassion on me.

I had a beautiful painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, painted in Mexico, hanging in by bedroom for years when I had a very hard time.

Though now I am grateful for that bit of suffering, I’m amazed how blind I was to Mary’s love .

I knew she was the New Eve, and thus my mother. But I didn’t understand until I read True Devotion Mary and the Glories of Mary, and then some of the Papal Encyclicals on Mary, which teach the same things.

But if anyone wants compassion and help, all they have to do is invoke Our Lady, who loves each human person as the unique individual they are , and “breathes nothing but pardon and love” (Pope Leo XIII).

 

[hazcompat]

The World’s First Love

BY THE MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN, PH.D., D.D.

Every man who pursues a maid, every maid who yearns to be courted, every bond of friendship in the universe, seeks a love that is not just her love or his love but something that overflows both her and him which is called “our love.”

Everyone is in love with an ideal love, a love that is so far beyond sex that sex is forgotten. We all love something more than we love. When that overflow ceases, love stops. As the poet puts it: “I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honour more.” That ideal love we see beyond all creature love, to which we instinctively turn when flesh-love fails, is the same ideal that God had in His Heart from all eternity –

the Lady whom He calls “Mother.” She is the one whom every man loves when he loves a woman whether he knows it or not. She is what every woman wants to be, when she looks at herself. She is the woman whom every man marries in ideal when he takes a spouse; she is hidden as an ideal in the discontent of every woman with the carnal aggressiveness of man; she is the secret desire every woman has to be honored and fostered; she is the way every woman wants to command respect and love because of the beauty of her goodness of body and soul. And this blueprint love, whom God loved before the world was made; this Dream Woman before women were, is the one of whom every heart can say in its depth of depths: “She is the Woman I love!”

Peace

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

 

[hazcompat]

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x...-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus.html

1. Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination,(47) immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.(48)

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thank you for both replies in this thread.

In your first reply, I was delighted to see the quote from Ven. Fulton J. Sheen’s book, "The World’s First Love… Recently, I read in the National Catholic Register (July 6) the Vatican said the Holy Father had authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree regarding: “- the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Fulton Sheen, titular archbishop of Newport, former bishop of Rochester; born on 8 May 1895 in El Paso, Illinois, United States of America, and died on 9 December 1979 in New York, United States of America.”

He has been a great blessing to the Church in our time, and Continues to bless us throug his Writing and the re-runs of his famous TV Series “Life is Worth Living”. Your quote from his book was a truly beautiful testimony to Ven. Fulton J. Sheen’s great love for Our Mother Mary. Would that more clergy would speak of Mary more often, but not just in words – it needs to be truly from the heart.

The words you quoted from His book surely came from the heart of Ven. Fulton J. Sheen. Thanks so much for sharing those words with us:

"That ideal love we see beyond all creature love, to which we instinctively turn when flesh-love fails, is the same ideal that God had in His Heart from all eternity –the Lady whom He calls “Mother.”

She is the one whom every man loves when he loves a woman whether he knows it or not. She is what every woman wants to be, when she looks at herself. She is the woman whom every man marries in ideal when he takes a spouse; she is hidden as an ideal in the discontent of every woman with the carnal aggressiveness of man; she is the secret desire every woman has to be honored and fostered; she is the way every woman wants to command respect and love because of the beauty of her goodness of body and soul. And this blueprint love, whom God loved before the world was made; this Dream Woman before women were, is the one of whom every heart can say in its depth of depths: “She is the Woman I love!”

 

[patricius79]

Everyone is in love with an ideal love, a love that is so far beyond sex that sex is forgotten.

That is a message the world sorely needs to hear and understand through the Blessed Virgin, our Mother!

Certainly the rebirth of sexual innocence in the Church will happen through the renewal of devotion to her whose innocence and goodness can only be understood fully by God.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

In your second reply, in which you posted the quote from Vatican 2 on Mary is another testimony of love for Mary which the Holy Spirit inspired in those writing the Document. I believe Mary is as St. Louis pictured her “in travail” over us – as so many inside and outside the Catholic Church have less love and devotion to her than in the past, and thus less love for her Son Who gave her to us.

St; Louis in paragraph 214 # 3 wrote:

Mary must beget us in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in us, nurturing us towards the perfection and the fulness of His age (Eph 4.13), so that she may say more truthfully than St. Paul, “My dear children, I am in travail over you afresh until Jesus Christ my Son is perfectly formed in you” (Gal 4.19).

It seems to me the Holy Spirit also inspired St. Louis in writing those words, for the Church to hear for centuries. So many sons and daughters seem so far from the perfect Son, Mary formed in her womb, by the Holy Spirit – yet, we know her prophetic words at Fatima have yet to be fulfilled:
“In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Please let us pray for one another that we may honor God always through our Mother who suffered with Jesus on Calvary and suffers with us today.