Sept. 5 - Wk 3 - Day 4 - understanding Jesus, through Mary

[MariaChristi]

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.) Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We’re coming close to the end of our final week of Preparation, to Consecrate ourselves totally to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of Her Nativity , Sept. 8. Today, on this First Saturday of September, how beautiful it is to continue seeking to understand Jesus, pondering His Unique union with His Immaculate Mother Mary. December 1925, in Spain, Jesus and Mary appeared to Sister Lucia of Fatima:

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."

Mary only asks what she knows to be God’s Will. She asks for Reparation because her Son Jesus, The Incarnate Word Made Flesh, in her womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit, asked for reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Can we not see how much Jesus loves Mary? When He tells us: “Behold your Mother,” do we truly see how God created Mary to be Mother of His Son and how His Son gave her to us to be our Mother also and the Model for His Church?

Please let us ponder these two Pierced Hearts today. We cannot really “understand” Jesus without Mary and the power of the Holy Spirit working within us as He worked in Mary to give Jesus to all who would accept Him.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful, kindle in us the fire of Your Love. Fill us as you filled Mary, with Jesus. Jesus we trust in You. Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose Memorial we celebrate today, pray for us.

Daily prayers for this week: Litany of the Holy Spirit, Ave Maris Stella, and Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.

 

[hazcompat]

Charles Péguy spent the night bringing flowers to Mary​

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

On August 15, 1914, Lieutenant Charles Péguy (1) attended Mass for the feast of the Assumption in the church of Loupmont, France. For almost ten years, he had sensed that the war was inevitable. On September 3, two weeks fresh in the army, he spent the night laying flowers at the foot of the statue of the Blessed Virgin in the chapel on the hill of Montmélian. On September 5, he died in combat, shot in the forehead. His WWI had only lasted a month.

From 1907 onwards, the Christian faith rose steadily in the soul of this staunch and idealistic socialist like a flooding river. He gave up his support for the Socialist Party… This change of heart was not a resignation; his Catholicism was never a form of capitulation. A “biting God” had “planted” His “teeth” in his heart. He was harpooned.

But he was also alone. Alone among his friends, alone in his family, alone among Christians… “I am one of those Catholics,” he said, “who would give all of Saint Thomas’ teachings for the Stabat, the Magnificat, the Hail Mary and the Salve Regina.” All these prayers to the Blessed Virgin were there for the taking, within easy reach. All he had to do was to say those prayers to enter into communion with God; to whisper them, to kneel down at the feet of she who is the advocate of lost causes; to recite them, to understand and to examine and make peace with his own heart…

When he wanted to clear his soul, to walk “the stony path of grace,” and to offer to God his baggage of sorrows, he would turn to Our Lady. He made three pilgrimages to Chartres on foot, once to ask Mary to heal his son, another time for a friend who had died, and a third time to overcome the temptations of marital infidelity.

This pilgrim always went to Mary, whom he called “the sinner’s refuge.”

(1) Charles Péguy was a famous French poet, essayist, and editor who died tragically in 1914.

Damien Le Guay, French philosopher

Excerpts from his latest book, Les Héritiers Péguy , published in 2014 (Éditions Bayard).

Taken from Le Figaro

Read more on mariedenazareth.com:​

Charles Péguy (France 1873-1914)

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,

I remember reading some of Charles Peguy’s poetry many years ago, but couldn’t find the poems online, that I had read. I did find one that was worth pondering: “The Passion of Our Lady” - maybe you’ve read it. I think it might go beyond the word limit, on CAF, to post the entire poem, so I’ll post only part of it – the poem begins:

For the past three days she had been wandering, and following.
She followed the people.
She followed the events.
She seemed to be following a funeral.
But it was a living man’s funeral.—
She followed like a follower.
Like a servant.
Like a weeper at a Roman funeral.—
As if it had been her only occupation.
To weep.—
That is what he had done to his mother.
Since the day when he had begun his mission.—
You saw her everywhere.
With the people and a little apart from the people.
Under the porticoes, under the arcades, in drafty places.
In the temples, in the palaces.
In the streets.
In the yards and in the back-yards.
And she had also gone up to Calvary.
She too had climbed up Calvary.
A very steep hill.
And she did not even feel that she was walking.
She did not even feel that her feet were carrying her.—
She too had gone up her Calvary.
She too had gone up and up
In the general confusion, lagging a little behind …
She wept and wept under a big linen veil.
A big blue veil…
A little faded.—

In trying to research his poetry, I found a mixture of comments concerning the different stages of his life, as well as differing opinions on the quality of his poetry, but I remember being impressed with what I read years ago. He seemed to be searching for God’s Truth, and I can only pray that the Lord found him and took him home after the tragic war in which he was killed. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.