Sept. 3 - Week 3 - Day 2 - seeking to understand Jesus better

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

St. Louis de Montfort wrote his treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” for the Church of his day in the 1700’s, for the Church today, and beyond 2020. It is somewhat “ironic” typing the numbers: “2020” which are used for “2020 vision”!

It is “ironic” because so many given “eyes to see” but see not and ears to hear, but seem to choose hearing the world rather than the Word of God. God gave us free will that we might freely choose Him in love, but do we truly love Him? St. Louis shows us how, writing in early in “True Devotion”:

1. My heart has dictated with special joy all that I have written to show that Mary has been unknown up till now, and that that is one of the reasons why Jesus Christ is not known as He should be.

If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come into the world, it can only be as a necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary. She who first gave him to the world will establish his kingdom in the world.

He then continues in Chapter 1:

1. With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, “I am he who is”. Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and the manifestation of His glory. To do all things He has only to will them.
2. However, I declare that, considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish His greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting.
3. God the Father gave his only Son to the world only through Mary. …“The world being unworthy,” said Saint Augustine, “to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive Him from her.”

The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in Mary and through Mary.

God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in Mary but only after having asked her consent through one of the chief ministers of His court.

If we want to understand Jesus better, we need by the power of the Holy Spirit to go to Him through Mary. Let us pray fervently this week as St. Louis de Montfort encourages us:

…Again with St. Augustine, they may pray repeatedly, “Lord, that I may know you,” or "Lord, that I may see."

and

As during the previous week, pray the Litany of the Holy Spirit and the Ave Maris Stella, adding every day the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.

 

[hazcompat]

Mary was a mountain which rose above all mountains​

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

She was a mountain which rose above all other created height, by the dignity of her election. Was not Mary a lofty mountain, who, that she might be worthy to conceive the Word, was raised above all the choirs of angels and approached the very throne of the Godhead?

Isaiah, foretelling the superexcellent elevation of this mountain, says: And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the summit of the mountains . It was indeed a mountain on the mountain’s top, because the elevation of Mary shone above that of all the saints.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great (d. 604)

Saint Gregory the Great mystically interpreted Mount Ephraim mentioned in the first book of Kings as the Virgin Mary.

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 hazcompat,

Thanks again for another great quote from yet another of our saintly Popes who appreciated Mary as early as the year 604. Today is the Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church.

Thanks for the lovely picture also. If given a choice, I think I would prefer living in the Mountains rather than at the sea shore. Both the sea and the mountains are very beautiful creations of God – but there is just something “special” about Mountains for me.