Sept. 1 - Wk 2, Day 7 - to know Mary is to love her

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

God gave St. Louis de Montfort tremendous Grace to know and to love Mary. His treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” has blessed the Church for centuries.

In a month dedicated to the Sorrowful Mother, Sept. 1, is an appropriate day to close this week seeking a better understanding of our Mother, given to us by Jesus from His Cross. The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on Sept. 15, follows the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross in Sept. 14. St. Louis de Montfort wrote:

7. The greater glory of Christ

1. If you live this devotion sincerely, you will give more glory to Jesus in a month than in many years of a more demanding devotion. Here are my reasons for saying this:

(1) Since you do everything through the Blessed Virgin as required by this devotion, you naturally lay aside your own intentions no matter how good they appear to you. You abandon yourself to our Lady’s intentions even though you do not know what they are. Thus you share in the high quality of her intentions, which are so pure that she gave more glory to God by the smallest of her actions… than all the angels and saints have given or will ever give him. Mary, wonder of God, when souls abandon themselves to you, you cannot but work wonders in them!

1. (2) In this devotion we set no store on our own thoughts and actions but are content to rely on Mary’s dispositions when approaching and even speaking to Jesus. We then act with far greater humility than others who imperceptibly rely on their own dispositions and are self- satisfied about them; and consequently we give greater glory to God, for perfect glory is given to him only by the lowly and humble of heart.
2. (3) Our Blessed Lady, in her immense love for us, is eager to receive into her virginal hands the gift of our actions, imparting to them a marvelous beauty and splendour, and presenting them herself to Jesus most willingly. More glory is given to our Lord in this way than when we make our offering with our own guilty hands.
3. (4) Lastly, you never think of Mary without Mary thinking of God for you. You never praise or honour Mary without Mary joining you in praising and honouring God. Mary is entirely relative to God. Indeed I would say that she was relative only to God, because she exists uniquely in reference to him.

She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say “Mary” she says “God”. When St. Elizabeth praised Mary calling her blessed because she had believed, Mary, the faithful echo of God, responded with her canticle, “My soul glorifies the Lord.” What Mary did on that day, she does every day. When we praise her, when we love and honour her, when we present anything to her, then God is praised, honoured and loved and receives our gift through Mary and in Mary.

Prayers for today: Litany of the Holy Spirit, Ave Maris Stella, 5 decades of the Rosary.

 

[hazcompat]

Pope Saint John Paul II
Crossing the Threshold of Hope

In regard to Marian devotion, each of us must understand that such devotion not only addresses a need of the heart, a sentimental inclination, but that it also corresponds to the objective truth about the Mother of God. Mary is the new Eve, placed by God in close relation to Christ, the new Adam, beginning with the Annunciation, through the night of His birth in Bethlehem, through the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, through the Cross at Calvary, and up to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Mother of Christ the Redeemer is the Mother of the Church.

Peace and all good!

 

[MariaChristi]

Thanks, hazcompat,

Pope St. John Paul II has been a “champion” in fostering devotion to Our Lady, throughout his life on earth. In his beautiful Apostolic Letter, “On the Most Holy Rosary” he wrote this, in Chapter 1:

Mary, model of contemplation

1. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” ( Lk 2:7).

Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look , as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” ( Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze , one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow , especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection , and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).

How truly did Pope St. John Paul II, do as John the Beloved Disciple did on Calvary, hearing Jesus’ words: “Behold Your Mother” – John the Beloved Disciple took Mary into his life, and so did St. John Paul II, and all the Saints. By God’s Grace may we also take Mary into our lives here on earth and forever in heaven!

Thanks again for your love of Jesus through Mary our Mother, and Model for the Church!

 

[Katie777]

Thank you for posting Maria Christie

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Katie,

And thank you also, Katie for replying – it is a blessing to know there are some who still have a deep devotion to our Mother. When I read both Scripture and the testimonies of the saints, I hear often the sorrow in God’s Heart and in Mary’s Heart at the indifference so many seem to have towards God’s love coming to us through the Immaculate Heart of Mary from the Sacred Heart of her Son Jesus, Who is the Incarnate Son of God.

Today begins the final week of preparation for consecratimg oneself totally to Jesus through Mary, and I am looking forward to giving myself once again totally to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, Sept.8. I hope many others among her sons and daughters will be giving their all to Him through Her everyday.