Wk 2 - Day 5 - "acquiring a greater understanding of Mary" (Advent begins!)

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, as we continue toward Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary. Mary is Mother and Model for the Church! We can “see” her by faith in all the Liturgy of the Word for today: (For the full text of Readings see HERE.) Due to CAF word limit only excerpts are below:

Reading 1
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah…

Mary was foretold by God in the Garden, after Adam and Eve sinned. God did not abandon us, but promised Jesus would come through Mary.

Responsorial Psalm
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior,
and for you I wait all the day…
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.…
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.

Mary ever lifted her soul to Him! Conceived without sin, she received in fullness the kindness and constancy of His Covenant and kept all pondering in her heart.

Reading 2
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all…
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen…

St. Paul is saying words similar to Mary’s words in her apparitions! Mary is the Mother of Fair Love, loving us, urging us: “Do whatever He tells you”

The Alleluia and Gospel encourage us to look forward to His Coming again!

Show us, Lord, your love;
and grant us your salvation…

Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,… But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap…Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Come Lord Jesus, as you came through Mary, in Your First Coming to us, reign in us through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

By God’s Grace let us pray fervently today:
Litany to the Holy Spirit
Ave Maris Stella,
In addition they will say at least five decades of the Rosary for greater understanding of Mary. ( from True Devotion, paragraph 229)

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Greenfields,

Thanks again for stopping by to read this thread and keep up with us on our journey towards Total Consecration. I felt sad that the pastor made no mention today of Mary in his Homily on this First Sunday of Advent. I don’t really understand how we can think of Advent without Mary, Mother of God – who conceived Jesus by the Power of the Holy Spirit and carried Jesus within her for nine months before His Birth.

But let us pray for priests – especially some who seem to have so little devotion to Mary that they rarely speak of her with the Love Jesus has in His Heart for our Mother. So precious is Mary to Him, that He gave her to John and to us from His Cross before He died.

Yesterday was First Saturday, and our parochial Vicar, a very prayerful priest from Ghana, offered the Mass and he spoke of Mary and spoke of her last Sunday too. Whenever I am participating at Mass, I know by the gift of Supernatural Faith that the Priest at every Mass is Christ and Victim for he is duly ordained by the Church “In Persona Capitus”. The Priest at Mass says: “This is My Body” and the bread is transformed into the Body of Christ. The Priest says, “This is My Blood” and the wine is transformed into His Blood.

Yet, the reverence with which a priest offers Mass and the reverence he has for all that Christ holds dear, seems more evident in some priests than in others. It makes a difference because some among the laity have so little knowledge of all God has revealed through Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. When people don’t hear from their priests anything about Mary as Mother and Model of the Church, some simply take for granted she must not be that important.

God help us! Please let us pray for the Church – Clergy and People! Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!