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The Heart of the Little Flower “It is now the hour to rise from sleep.” (Rom. 13) The Fire of the Holy Ghost does not animate our everyday life with Divine Love as it did the early Christians. One can easily see how the enemies of the Church, filled with satanic hatred, are bent upon leading away from Christ the souls, which He has so dearly bought with His own Precious Blood. Amidst the spreading poison of worldliness, souls become pleasure-mad and are drawn down to perdition. A well-trained army of souls is needed to stand by faithful priests and help save souls. We must make haste to do now what will profit us for all eternity. Advance and run the way of God's Commandments with expanded hearts and with unspeakable sweetness of true charity: Let us never depart from His Divine guidance that we may persevere in His doctrine till death. May we, by our patient share in the sufferings of Christ, be found worthy to be … Co-Heirs of His Kingdom! Humility secures God's Grace. The first degree of humility is obedience without any delay. We must remain in constant readiness always to obey quickly and cheerfully the Will of God. It is the path to Heaven that will never lead us astray. Our cheerful obedience to lawful authority – be it parent, superior or teacher from a supernatural motive, is truly an apostolic act. The heart of Saint Therese understood and embraced this sublime way of life completely. It was her goal in life to love Jesus as He had never yet been loved. She could not love Him with as great a love as Mary's but she might love Him with a love distinctive of herself, a love that would charm His Heart. To the Mother love of Mary, she could add the sweet child love of her heart. The fragrance of the perfume of her Little Way now fills the wide spaces of the Church Militant on earth, brings comfort and relief to the Suffering Souls in Purgatory, and is forever giving joy to the Church Triumphant in Heaven. The secret of the Little Flower can be briefly told. It is not a complicated formula of piety. The Master Himself taught her, and so her way is simplicity and truth itself. To understand it more perfectly, one must be humble. To be transformed into humility, one must have the trust of a child and love with the heart of a child. There is nothing more effective than suffering to teach us that of ourselves we can do nothing. Being incapable of anything, we must with total trust rest in the Arms of God’s paternal Providence. It is the precious gift of suffering borne for the love of Christ and in obedience to His Divine Will that opens the door of our hearts to the secret of Saint Therese. "It is the Way of Spiritual Childhood … There is to be nothing extraordinary in her Little Way. Never did she rest in her ambition to win souls for Jesus. No matter how weak, she always LOVED. Her Divine Spouse is longing above all for the souls of priests. “There is but one thing to be done here below: to love Jesus and to save souls so that He may be all the more loved. We must not let slip even the smallest opportunity of giving Him joy!" This is the essence of the life of Saint Therese. It is her mission on earth and the one she will fulfill throughout eternity until the last day. Love lives only by sacrifice, thus the more we surrender ourselves to love, the more we must surrender ourselves to suffering. If we could only say with Saint Therese, “I love Jesus so very much that I am always content with what He sends me." What happiness we might possess if we could forget ourselves and think only of others. Even when Therese had nothing, she gave Jesus this nothing. In imitation of Saint Therese, let us … NOT SEEK JOY but SEEK to GIVE JOY! The heart of St. Therese was bright and cheerful, boundlessly confident, astonishingly daring; hesitated at nothing, feared no sacrifice, dreaded no suffering and thought of no reward. It was the breath of God that inflamed within her heart a consuming desire to die, at last, a Victim of Love for Him. “In order that my life be one Act of perfect love, I offer myself as a victim of Holocaust to Thy Merciful Love, imploring Thee to consume me unceasingly and to allow the floods of the infinite tenderness gathered up in Thee to overflow into my soul, so that I may become a very martyr of Thy Love, O my God." “To live of Love, It was to Mary, indeed, that Therese had the most tender recourse and, by Mary, she found her way to the Heart of God. A deep humility was the foundation of Saint Therese's love and it was her very littleness that made God Himself stoop down and take her up in His Arms. Above all, let us be little. “I shall come down and spend my Heaven doing good upon earth. On the battlefield in defense of the Church, I would be a missionary, were it possible, from the beginning of the world till the consummation of time.” It is love that gives life to the Mystical Body of Christ. Were this love to be extinguished, the Apostles would no longer preach the Gospel and the Martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. St. Therese understood that love embraces all vocations and that it reaches through all ages and to the utmost limits of earth because it is eternal. Her heart was aflame with zeal for souls. She longed not just to love, but to make Jesus loved… Let us with Saint Theresa make our oblation: In the Heart of my Mother the Church, I will be Love! |
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, May 9, 2012
May 11th, 2012Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, May 2, 2012
May 5th, 2012|
Blessed Are They That Hunger! Life is a burden but the yoke of Faith is sweet! A living faith, which permeates all of our actions, gives us the strength to cope successfully with the problems of life, and to bear all things for God’s sake. To find love, we must first light a candle. Until now, we have searched for God in the dark. Supernatural faith is the victory, which overcomes the world; it is a living embrace of God. When we speak of love, we say, “I love.” Love is the verb and the action word. When we say, “I am loved,” it is a passive expression as if I have received the love. In reality, it is quite the opposite. When I love someone, the person I love has radiated towards me attractive forces, which bring me under his or her influence. Only then, do I begin to serve this person – both interiorly and exteriorly. On the contrary, if I am loved by others, then I have first been active because it is I who have radiated the attractive forces that drew others to me. “Come to Me all you who labor and are burdened, It is necessary that we be drawn, otherwise we do not come to the Son and through the Son to the Father. We do not first leave the world and then find God, but first we are drawn by God and only then we become less and less attached to the things of the world. Our Heavenly Father takes this work upon Him-self. It is He who draws us. Faith is daring! Faith is the sacrifice of our understanding. Before faith, our natural reason must be still. Faith surpasses human understanding! Our faith is not against but above reason. Faith is an act of our will, by which we unconditionally accept all the truths God has revealed for He can neither deceive nor be deceived! During the consecration of the Sacred Wine, the Priest says…“This is the Chalice of My Blood of the New and Eternal Covenant, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.” Faith depends on the free assent of the will. THY WILL BE DONE! In truth, Faith is unconditional, courageous and irrevocable. True faith demands a sacrifice of the whole man. Faith is a Holocaust: A life that is dominated by faith constantly forces us to make decisions. Always, we must decide between Christ and the world, between Him and all mankind, between Him and our very self. All of us consider ourselves Christian but that is not enough, we must become Christs in very truth. Only he who dares all, and gives all can hope to become a real Christian, a real “Christ”. This very thought is frightening to some, yet, even in the practical world, it makes good sense. Should we give all and sacrifice all for the hope of a blessed eternity, and there be none, we have lost only a few years and might have been a fool. But, if there is an eternal account to which we will be held, then our opponents hazard a whole eternity! My dear Christian, how YOU have been fooled if your Heaven is NOT TRUE!
My dear atheist, how YOU have been fooled if, IN TRUTH, Hell is your due! We have far too little daring in the spiritual life; due to our cowardice, we get nowhere. We must risk EVERYTHING for God! There is absolutely no security in this life. LIFE IN FAITH IS LIFE IN GRACE! Faith is a grace and every grace is the fruit of the Cross. The growth of grace is realized in the soul by and through prayer. It is not enough to say a few prayers of obligation – we must pray without ceasing! For the temporal necessities, we need not worry much. Did not Our Lord say: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His Justice and all these things shall be given unto you.” (Matthew 6:33). We should use our time of prayer to obtain eternal and divine gifts. Prayer is an act of religion. In prayer, we occupy our rightful place in relationship to God, our place as creature before our Creator. All things that increase sanctifying grace in our souls, augment the life of Christ and increase the light of faith in us. Faith is a spiritual light. Every light must be supplied with fuel. Not only must every lamp be cared for properly, but it must also be kept full with oil. Prayer is the oil of the Lamp of Faith! One does not have to attend Mass daily, be well learned in theological matters or have great talents and capabilities so as to preach or perform noble actions of charity. These are not the measure of our holiness. The man who has five talents has no right to a greater reward than the man who is given but one. But, he does have greater responsibility! Weakness is our great asset on the road to sanctity. The smaller, weaker and poorer we are in His sight, the more clearly we realize our own nothingness and the better grace can work in our soul. “For when I am weak, then I am powerful.” (II Cor.12: 9, 10) We must seek with our whole mind, heart, and soul First the Kingdom of God and His Justice. “FIRST” means only and exclusively. When we are absolute emptiness, only then can we receive the abundance of God. The singular most important role we play in our sanctification is to give God the only thing we possess – OUR FREE WILL! It is our part in the sanctification of our souls. God reigns now in Heaven. The members of His Mystical Body on earth continue to suffer, work, pray and sacrifice in order that our measure of the Redemption be complete. A thousand million heathens have not yet heard of the glad tidings of the Gospel of Christ. How can they hear it if it is not preached to them? How can they receive His message if there are no heralds? God still asks, “Whom shall I send?” How few there are who answer with the prophet, “Here I am Lord, send me.” Very many souls will not find the true Church because there are so few laborers in the vineyard and the faith of those present, is but weak. God thirsts for souls. The obligation to extend the kingdom of God rests on all of us. No one can excuse himself. We are all our brother’s keepers. We are the liberators of our Eucharistic Prisoner: Christ is desire and we are to be His deed! In the Most Blessed Sacrament, Jesus is condemned to inaction and external silence. Jesus needs our hearts, our hands, our bodies and souls in order to manifest His Activity. We must be His “DEED,” if Activity Itself is not to remain inactive. Jesus must wait until a human heart offers itself without reserve, in perfect faith. When Christ wants to live and work in us, He is forced to wait for our goodwill. Christ cannot grow in us when we tenaciously hold on to our will. “He must increase but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) “I thirst!” Christ still calls down from the Cross. Not only are we permitted to take part in the work of the redemption but also we are privileged to be called to carry Christ’s Cross with Him. God has no need of our exterior acts nor does He need our accomplishments, he desires only our will. Mortification is not perfection. It is only a means to an end. Our heaven and our hell depend on OUR WILL. The will is the most hidden sanctuary of the soul into which no one, not even God Himself, will force entrance. I WILL TO WILL THE WILL OF GOD! On the two wings of grace and goodwill, the soul takes its flight to heaven. By our desires, we can shed anew the redeeming Blood of Christ and sprinkle it over the souls of men. Our desires are the fountainhead of our every deed. Christ changes every one of our supernatural desires into deeds. A fervent desire for Baptism, accompanied with perfect love and perfect contrition, substitutes for that important and necessary Sacrament when its actual reception is impossible to us. Perfect contrition, which is nothing else than the desire for restoration of son-ship with the Father (a readiness to fulfill in all things the Will of God) blots out mortal sin. There remains for us but the obligation to confess our grievous sin as soon as possible. Perfect contrition substitutes for the Sacrament of Penance should the repentant sinner die without a Priest. We do not suffer a disadvantage when circumstances beyond our control hinder our desires from reaching fruition. Spiritual Communion then gains for our soul all the graces and the merits of Sacramental Communion. DISMAS, THE SINNER! DISMAS, THE THIEF! Throughout his life, crime and hate filled his days. Hanging now upon the cross next to Jesus, his heart was opened to truth and he embraced his cross and made a public act of perfect Faith: “LORD, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom”. His sins were immediately and completely forgiven and he was canonized while still alive. On the ground, he had been a sinner; raised up on the cross he became a saint! Let us imitate him. How is it, we waste our time wondering why we suffer and resent our cross? We WILL carry it, with merit or without! Let us imitate Saint Dismas in our suffering. Look to Jesus Christ crucified and beg only that He remember us where He reigns as King, eternally in Glory! The soul who loves God possesses Him. We have, in the Immaculate Virgin Mary, an example of perfect Faith. When God manifested His Will to her, she obeyed Him immediately and completely. It is great boldness on anyone’s part to question whether God’s manifested Will is good for him. Like Mary, we must obey. “Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.” (John 2:5) When there was a question of sacrifice and suffering Our Blessed Mother was allowed full participation in the life of Christ. The greatest sacrifice Jesus asked of Mary was on Calvary. She must live, but He must die! Erect she stood under the Cross as Co-Redemptrix. In union with her High-Priest-Son, she offered the first Mass to the Most Blessed Trinity for the redemption of the world. Her First-born had been sacrificed for the good of her other children. Now began the second part of her life. Jesus said: “Behold thy son”. You must remain on earth to see Me and to love Me in each member of My Church. You must continue to be My mother. Do for them, what you have done for Me. Heaven stood silent to hear again her FIAT, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.” Mary knows what it means to walk by faith. Let us fly to Mary when the oil in our lamp runs low. Her love will supply what is lacking in ours. The Immaculate Virgin Mary directs the light of the Holy Ghost on every spiritual flower to bring it to fruition. Without Mary, there is no life in Jesus and no life in faith. Only when the love of Mary hovers over our soul can Christ be formed in us. The dread disease of our modern times is MEDIOCRITY. It is our greatest enemy! We must have courage enough to give our whole self in the service of God, to offer Him all that we possess. “The Kingdom of Heaven suffer violence, and the violent bear it away.” Our life here below is a continuous dying. How often we allow ourselves to be deceived by that which is external. Only eternal values are important. Each of us is asked to renounce all that he holds dear; to sacrifice all that he possesses! The forces of evil are drawn up in battle array. The soul of man is not only the battlefield but it is also the prize to be won or lost in this great conflict. We must put on the armor of God that we may stand firm against the deceits of the devil. We are wrestling not with flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers. We must be vigilant. We must keep the lamp of our immortal soul burning brightly. We must pray without ceasing. Our fire of faith, hope and charity must not burn out. God has done His part. Now we must do ours. What a terrible responsibility lies on our shoulders! Sin works itself out in wars, famine and pestilences. Self-seeking is death. Love is life. We must be the: SALT of the earth, All men must see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. Whether souls are to be won or lost for Christ has been given into the hands of each individual member of the Mystical Body of Christ. Not the great, but the little ones, rule the world. When we look at the battle of life confronting us, how often we misjudge its gravity thinking it can be fought with human weapons. If we wish to obtain victory, we must first divest ourselves of our all ‘too-human’ way of thinking and study well Our Lord’s law of spiritual war-fare. Did not Peter stretch forth his hand to an earthly weapon? Christ commanded him to put up his sword and restored the injury done to the enemy. Jesus Christ conquered through His death. All wisdom lies hidden in the Cross. All of our strength is to be found in the apparent ‘weakness’ of the Crucified. Dying, we conquer! The blood of Martyrs is the seed of Christians. If we enter battle trusting in our earthly armor, our defeat is certain. All that take up the sword, shall perish by the sword. We must renounce earthly weapons if we want to be assured of victory. Down through the centuries, when the cry was heard: “The Church is dying.” She burst forth on an astonished world in all the splendor of a new Resurrection. All her strength is supernatural strength. At times we must suffer injustice, but at no time must we ever commit injustice! We are sure to fail if we fight God’s battle with earthly weapons and worldly strategies. The more the spiritual is mingled with the worldly; the more it loses its fighting strength and all chance for victory. The children of God and the children of the world serve two entirely different masters, live in two entirely different spheres, move on two entirely different planes, measure everything with two entirely different scales. “The servant is not greater than his MASTER. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15: 20). Eternal life has to be bought at the price of our natural life. To obtain heaven we must die to ourselves and to sin. We must place our total and absolute trust in God. We must give our all! In the hour of our death, NOTHING must hold us to the earth. All bonds must have been broken. Stand Fast In The Faith! |
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, April 25, 2012
April 26th, 2012| Dear Apostle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Your passion and zeal for the Glory of God will be rewarded eternally! Through your gift to Our Lady, Her children are given the powerful means of Her protection and grace. But, even more than this, they are given a lively hope and strong confirmation that She does truly care about their suffering and needs and She loves them! God bless you!
Beyond every ambition in this life, the one important thing is to know that God loves you and to return His Love. Moral principles are clear when stated in a book, but they fail to touch the heart, and it is the heart that controls human behavior. A man needs something simple and always ready at hand to repel the assaults of the world: the flesh and the devil. In the inner sanctuary of the heart, divine love is the all in all. The Saints were not mortified or humble, they simply loved God! Virtue is the outward expression of our interior love for God. Love is the only secret of the Saints, the secret of every life lived for God. Love acquires freshness and increasing delight the more it spends itself. Make the love of God your heart’s primary goal. Do not let your sins or weakness discourage you. It is precisely because we are sinners and have such a great need for God, that He desires to come to us. Do not delay in seeking Him alone. Never be afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him. However, feeble your desires, however often you have betrayed Him by yielding to temptation, Christ cannot resist the cry of a heart that yearns for Him. His Mercy is without limit! Do not dwell on your sins. Flight from sin simply means flight to the arms of God. Satan and sin will lose its power over you. What matters is your desire and quest for Christ! “He who seeks Him has already found Him.” (St. Augustine) We know perfectly well what is right, and yet we do that which is wrong. What greater act of humility is there than to seek humbly the forgiving love of Him whom we have offended? Will He reject our love? It is unthinkable that Jesus would not be moved to give His help to us. Our blind trust and unwavering confidence in the love of Christ give Him great glory. We must never doubt God’s Love for us. One personal act of love, whereby God is recognized as the Supreme Good, worthy of all love and gratitude, pleases Him greatly. Love must be tried by fire to bring out its purity and temper its strength, thus God sends to us suffering and storms of opposition. Love is courageous! Prayer is an exchange of love, the gift of self to God and God’s gift of Himself to the soul. We must begin with love, progress in love and end with love. Love is the Alpha and Omega of Christian life. To the very last split second of our mortal life, God’s Love and Mercy is at our beck and call. To ask is to receive pardon, with no strings attached. Freely, God gave His Love to us and, freely, we must return that love to Him. Fear nothing in life so much, as to despise God’s Love. My God, I love Thee! |
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I am sharing a secret, the most beautiful and joyful that was ever told. It is the secret of Divine Love. God shouts it from every mountaintop, over the breadth of the land, and across the vast waste of the seven seas, throughout all of creation! It is revealed convincingly on the Hill of Calvary. Upon every Altar, He proclaims it each day and from every Tabernacle, day and night, He repeats it for all who care to hear. Yet, Divine Love remains a secret because man does not understand its language. Hearing, men do not hear, and seeing they do not understand.
Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, April 18, 2012
April 19th, 2012|
ARISE, MY LOVE AND COME! “LEARN FROM ME; I AM MEEK AND HUMBLE OF HEART!” Humility is the divine teaching of Jesus; it is the mark of His sanctity and the condition necessary for us to obtain His gifts. Humility is the soul’s greatest triumph over Satan. An act of humility strikes the devil to the ground at his first assault. Humility is our rampart and our shield. It was through the humility of Mary that Our Blessed Savior was conceived by the Holy Ghost. A humble soul is patient, long-suffering, mild and kind. This sweetness is a divine touch which produces serenity and peace, and enables us to surmount the insurmountable! “Patience is necessary to you that doing the Will of God, you may receive His promise.” (Hebrews 10:36) “In your patience, you will possess your soul.” (St. Luke) By patience, then, we will save our souls. Patience is an instrument of salvation, an inestimable treasure. Our every act of patience brings us nearer to Heaven, and is a test of our fitness for eternal life. WHAT IS PATIENCE? Patience is the willing endurance of what is painful to us for the love of God. Patience lightens every suffering which cannot be avoided. Patience teaches us to endure our infirmities, poverty, insults, contempt, neglect and desolation. Patience helps us to surrender, without complaint, to all the words and actions of others which cause us pain. Rarely a day passes that we do not have the opportunity to practice patience. Our life is a vale of tears. Troubles of every kind surround us: both temporal and spiritual troubles; troubles unmerited and some suffered through our own fault. Yet, every trouble is sent in mercy, and is intended by our Father in Heaven to help us on our road Home. Each one is a means of probation – a test to show if we are truly children of God. If we accept them with patience, we shall be saved. If we rebel against them and refuse to submit to them, then they are real evils and misfortunes to us. Everything depends on our goodwill. O MY GOD, we ought to thank Thee that this life is so short and Eternity so long! Our patience is tried by everything that puts an obstacle in the way of our action. Those who look upon the world, without taking into account the nature of their sin, the meaning of their true state of probation, and the rewards and punishments of the life to come, will be puzzled by suffering. Why has so merciful a God permitted the innocent to suffer? Why is it that the most spiritual of souls are often times those who have the hardest lot and bitterest trials? Friendship with God entails suffering. Am I inclined to find fault with God's arrangement? O how foolish!!! Do you think God has repaid good with evil by sending suffering to those who love Him? They themselves do not judge it so. They rather like sufferings. But, how can this be? Suffering is not pleasant, but in its effects, it is marvelous! Suffering has a powerful ability to counteract evil! It is a mark of God's favor! It is a promise for an eternity of blessings! It may be said to contain within itself all sweetness. This must be my view of suffering. In the beginning, there was no suffering. When the fallen angels and then, mankind rebelled against God, suffering made its appearance. Suffering is necessary to expiate the outrages offered to the majesty of God by His creatures. It is the fulfillment of the eternal law that he who sins must suffer. Suffering is the complement and effect of sin. It is the carrying out of the law of retribution. The sufferings that we undergo are a just punishment for our sins. But suffering is a great deal more! It is the remedy of disease, the kindly knife that hurts but cures. Suffering makes the proud, humble and submissive. Before being afflicted with suffering, many violate the Word of God, after suffering, they keep His Word! Suffering purifies the soul and is a payment for the joy that will be ours throughout eternity. We can earn more graces for ourselves and for others by the patient endurance of suffering than by the most active zeal or severe penances. It is a safe and sure means of glorifying God, for we cannot be proud of our sufferings as we are of our actions. Suffering is the most precious gift God has to offer us. Let us not deceive ourselves with regard to genuine union with God! Souls who think they have reached the peak of spirituality through sensible consolations, holy pilgrimages and long novenas, or severe fasts, are like children playing with ashes that the wind carries away. NO, no! True union with God does not consist in delights, but in privations! The sign that God dwells in us and that we are possessed by His Love, is that we take what hurts, not only patiently, but that we reach out and embrace it whole-heartedly! My God, may Thy Cross be my cross; Grant that I may have the courage and strength Now and forever faithful let me be, |
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, April 11, 2012
April 12th, 2012|
You Must Remake The World The word “layman” or “laity” comes from the Greek word which means “people”. In the Old Testament, it was used in this sense: You are the people sacred to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all nations on the face of the earth to be HIS OWN. The priest is a mediator between God and man; he brings the prayers, the sacrifices and the sins of man to God and, from God, he brings to man graces and blessings. By the very fact of his ordination, he is taken from among men and ordained for men in the things that pertain to GOD. A Religious is one who renounces life in the world and consecrates himself to God by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. A religious is called by Jesus Christ to separate himself from the world. But the layman is a Christian who loves and serves Christ IN the world. Some time back, a group of zealous priests were appalled at the apostasy of the masses from the Church. They determined that the best way to win them back to Christ would be to share their way of life and their work. They reasoned that, working thus in close contact with the faithful, they would demonstrate the love of Christ for them and win them back to the Church. The priests took off their habits, left their monasteries and went to live in the tenants of the poor. The results were DISASTEROUS! A good many of these priests not only gave up the priesthood but also abandoned their faith!!! These dear priests had been called from the world by Christ and were attempting to do the work that was not theirs as priests to do. They were ordained or “taken from the world” to bring to men ‘the things of God’, but in the world they were so busy; there was not enough time to nourish themselves and the workers with spiritual food. They failed in their DAILY DUTY because they attempted to do the work of the layman.
The world is the sum of all creation. God saw that it was good. Sin entered the world of man and the things of God were abused. Pleasure, wealth and honor were adored and served – the devil was enthroned. Through his Baptism and Confirmation, the lay apostle is called upon to consecrate the world to God. This is clearly what Our Lady came to Fatima to ask of each and every one of us. To consecrate means to “make holy”… to set aside for God. The lay apostle is a mediator, a go-between for the Church and the world; he receives CHRIST, as the Way, the Truth and the Life, and then brings Him to the world. As a citizen of both the Church and the world, he is meant to be the bridge that unites them.
The layman cannot give Christ to others unless he himself possesses Christ. He must know and love Christ and the Church before he can impart by word or example this knowledge and love to others. A layman sanctifies himself by living according to the duties of his particular state in life. He loves and pleases God when he does God’s Will, which is made clear to him by the multiple obligations of his vocation. The layman is called not to a minimal holiness, but to the full Christian sanctity of life to which Christ called everyone: “Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Sanctifying Grace is not merely the absence of mortal sin but, above all, the presence of God in the soul. Almighty God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” We have been commanded to obey God. The world is consecrated when it serves this purpose; to be at the service of man, who is living in obedience to God. The housewife consecrates her world when she brings peace, order and love to the home, that her family may live a natural and Christian life; the businessman consecrates his labor by following the principles of justice and charity so that his workers may lead a human and Christian life. Every person, no matter what his particular work, can help attain the goal of consecrating the world to Christ, by living a holy life, thus all that serve him, in turn, serve God. When asked if the consecration commanded by Our Lady at Fatima had been accomplished, Sr. Lucia said that it had been done, in part, but would only be complete when every person, every family, every parish, every diocese and every country had made the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and lived it. Every Catholic is an apostle. He must continue to study so that he may build upon the foundation of his faith laid in the days of his formal religious instruction. Religion is a vital topic and should be discussed. It is for a mother to instill in her child the apostolic spirit. We should examine our conscience daily, concerning our duties to our neighbor. We have to ask ourselves not only, “Have I harmed my neighbor?” BUT ALSO “Have I shown him the way that leads him to God, to Christ, to the Church and to salvation?” A hundred years ago, Cardinal Newman wrote: “In all times the laity have been the measure of the Catholic spirit; they saved the Irish Church three centuries ago, and they betrayed the Church in England.” This is so true! The Irish laity took their Church into the hedges and preserved it in their homes and in their hearts; while the rich nobility of England betrayed the Church for the sake of material gain. In Japan, the Christians kept the faith alive without priests and the Mass through their deep personal devotion to the Mother of God and faithfully praying each day the Holy Rosary. The layman lives in the world, and his essential role is to consecrate the world for Christ. If the world is made a better place in which to live and if vast millions of un-churched in this world find Christ, it will be the fruit of intelligent and zealous laymen who have properly fulfilled the role to which they have been called. My dear faithful, You MUST remake THE WORLD! WE MUST DEFEND HER RIGHTS, FIGHT FOR HER GLORY, |
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, April 4, 2012
April 6th, 2012|
Christ is Risen from the Dead! Let us Rejoice! Dear Apostles and Benefactors of the Living Rosary, Glory be to Thee, O Christ Our God, Our Hope! Glory be to Thee With deep and true joy, we send to our Living Rosary Family abundant blessings, all courage, hope and happiness. We have remembered you at the Sacred Altar all during the penitential Season of Lent and, now, we rejoice to remember you still during the glorious Octave of Easter. Our Savior’s Resurrection is a fact founded on proof so reliable and convincing that all objections urged against it are utterly valueless. Christianity is essentially a death which leads to life; it is the work of Christ Who acquired, by His Death, the right to unite our souls to Him and to pour His own Life into them by means of the effusion of His Holy Spirit. Never dread to take up the Cross, it is the very way to the Kingdom of Heaven! The Cross is health! In the Cross is life; in the Cross is defense from our enemies; in the Cross is the infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind and body, joy of spirit, highness of virtue and the full perfection of all holiness. If you die with Christ, you will rise with Him; if you follow Him in pain, you will be with Him in glory! Christ stressed the Resurrection, “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me, though he be dead, shall live. And, everyone who liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die.” Jesus Christ addressed His message to all men. Christ was the revelation of God. This revelation was nothing short of revolutionary; it burst on the world like a new sun or planet. No human mind could clearly grasp the possibility of this stooping down of the Godhead, this Love of God for man. For all Eternity, He will be the God-Man bearing upon Him the marks of His victory, and He will gather His elect around Him. This thought must embolden us to meet life with optimism and accept the crosses sent as the Power and Wisdom of God. Every step we take along the path of life in God’s service brings us nearer to Heaven. Time relentlessly carries us swiftly toward eternal joy, peace and glory. If God permits us, at times, to be tried severely, cast down, beset with sorrows, it is to lead us more securely to Heaven. There is much consolation in sufferings when we keep Eternity before our eyes. Our joy in Heaven will be permanent and immutable, our happiness will be total. O Blessed Resurrection! What Power of Faith! What Strength and Security of Hope! What a Glorious, New and Holy Life! I impart to all of you my priestly blessing: In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. Fr. IVAN KOLODIY |
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, March 28, 2012
March 29th, 2012|
The Key of My Heart is My Will! It is This Key That I Must Give to God! In Psalm 39:9 of the Old Testament, it is written, “To do Thy Will, O my God, is all my delight. Behold, I come.” God loves me, and I must love Him in return. His delight is to be with me; let it be mine, to be with Him. The most effective transforming prayer that can be said comes from the heart. It is, “Thy Will be Done.” There is no doubt that the measure of a person’s moral holiness is the wanting and the doing of the Will of God: It is the measure of a person’s faith; it is the singular measure of our love for God; it matters not with what intensity we pray, or the measure of our personal faith; everything is contained in the wanting and the doing of the Will of God: “THY WILL BE DONE “Not all who call out, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God, but he who does the Will of God.” Matt.7:21 “If you love Me, you will keep My Commandments.” John 14:15 There is a struggle in us and we must ask ourselves very honestly, “Do I really want God’s Will? Or, do I want Him to do my will?” Do I say in prayer, “Lord, what is Your Will, this is all I want?” Or, do I make my own plans first and then say, “Come on God, come on now and support my plans, I want to be healthy, happy, comfortable, respected and secure.” But, before answering these questions you must first ask yourself two questions: 1. Do I really believe deep down inside of me, that God wants my happiness more than I do? Do I really believe that? 2. Do I really believe that God knows better than I, what will make me happy? And, do I trust Him to give it to me? When our prayers are not answered promptly and, in the way we have pleaded with God they should be, do we then pout saying, “God is not listening to us, it is useless and then do we quit praying?” God knows more about achieving my eventual happiness than I ever can know. He is working out a bigger and more far reaching plan that I can even comprehend: A plan for my happiness. My wanting God’s Will and my doing God’s Will are going to have great bearing on my prayer. Thy Will be done is the prayer of a spouse. By these words, we, who are followers of Jesus, become also His spouses. When I surrender everything to Him, it is this very surrender which becomes the proof of my love. Our Lord approaches with burning desire, as the loving Spouse of my soul, and my gift to Him of my will is the only offering I can make which is worthy of Him. By my surrender, I become entirely His. I LIVE NOW, When I go to pray, do I ask God about my place in His plans! God has plans for the world and each one of us in the world. The plan for our lives is hidden in God from all eternity. These plans were revealed to the world by Jesus Christ. And, it is now for us to live out His plan to achieve His Divine Design for the world and souls. God wants to fill us with life, joy and peace. This can only be achieved when we become one Family of God, when we love God above all things and our neighbor for the love of God. We pray well when we say, “O Lord, what is my place in Your plan? O, God, be a light to my mind and a lantern to my feet. I know You have a plan for my life, what would You like me to do to help you achieve Your plan? What is the role You want me to play? What is the message I am to deliver, the song I am to sing, what act of love do You want from my life?” It is we who must seek to find our place in God’s plans for this is the only fitting response to His invitation of faith. “Dear Father, I know you have something special for me to contribute and I want to contribute it. What is Thy Will?” God does not have a specific will to regulate all our choices and every detail of our lives, overriding all individual decisions. This would deprive us of free will and our acts of love would be rendered sterile. God has a general will for all of His children, and it might be something like this, “Do something loving with your life, your talents and your time! Do something beautiful for Me! Make love your life principle!” The surest guide to the Will of God for each one of us is the daily duties of our state in life. We may know, with certainty, that these duties are, without doubt, God’s Will for us. If there is something special God wants us to do with our lives, He will place deep attraction in our soul for this thing: a religious vocation, a career, a partner for life, to give help to a certain person and so on. When these moments of grace come upon us, we sense that God is asking this special thing of us. The YES that I say to God’s Will, means the acceptance of His plan in all the details of my life. I must accept who I am, the gifts I have been given, my shortcomings and strengths, the parents of whom I was born, the place in which I live, all the details of my life are God’s Will for me. I accept them, dear God, as Thy Will for me. When God created this world, there were lots of other worlds He could have made. He knew the details of each one, and He chose this one and me with this life of mine. Thy Will Be Done! This is what I too want, whatever You want of me. Everyone who will embrace the Will of God, wholeheartedly, will automatically eliminate 95% of the normal suffering that enters the life of a human being. What disturbs our peace of soul are the conflicting desires we possess. “I want this, I want that, I must have this, it must be that way.” We set our hearts on things and then we are crushed when our plans and desires are not realized. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there is your heart.” If my treasure be the Will of God, I will always seek His Will and give my best effort, allowing God to bless it with success or failure. This alone is the secret of true peace. “You are my God, You know what will make me happy far better than I; do with me whatever You will.” There is complete peace in our surrender to God’s Will. We must want to become what God wants us to become, live only as long as He wishes us to live, accept the successes and failures He sends to us with perfect peace. In such a life, suffering must be given a different name. Even life or death holds little terror, if we cherish above all the Will of God. There will be no conflicts of interest. Oh! To want only what He wants, to accomplish only the things He has called me to do, to walk through only the doors He opens for me: This is true happiness. Once I surrender to God, He carries me in His arms for He knows what is best for me. He is moving with me in the direction of Heaven. I must not be afraid He will drop me. I must stop grabbing on to the banisters of life. God whispers to me, “You must let go,” so that we can move toward Heaven. Do I look at Him with plaintive eyes, and say, “I am afraid You will drop me? I lack trust and conviction in Your Love and Your Wisdom. I am a fraction. My God make me whole!” Let me not faint when the crosses come. The Road of Pain is the way to Heaven; the hurtful things in life are the most divine blessings, and these should be embraced as God’s greatest gifts. The cross makes me like Jesus. It is the pledge of union with His adorable Heart. There is no real love and no real holiness without the cross. Every trifling cross is a fragment of the Sacred Host, for in it, is contained our God, whole and entire. My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not trust and do not love Thee.
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, March 21, 2012
March 23rd, 2012|
Fatima and the Morning Offering
The Mornging Offering Our Most Important Acto fo the Day!  God has only one intention. He desires the salvation of all men. Through knowing Christ, man will come to know and love the Father. The modern world has a bitter need to see Christ in the streets. I am talking about the presence of Christ in Christians.
The Magdalens will come to adore Him in the Blessed Sacrament, but not before they have met Him in the streets. They must encounter the goodness of Him in the members of His Mystical Body. Every Christian has a missionary vocation. We are like the Mother of God, really. Our apostolic mission is to give Christ to the world. Our Lord complains to Margaret Mary, “Behold, this Heart which has so loved men, which has spared nothing, even to being exhausted and consumed, yet the greater part of men make me no return other than their ingratitude, coldness and forgetfulness. But, what is still more painful is those who are consecrated to Me treat Me thus.”
Spontaneous and whole-hearted consecration is the flower of real love. For the moment, we may not be called upon to pour forth our sweat and blood on the battlefields of apostleship, but we can PRAY! Our prayers, penances and good works are a power. Our prayerful army of penitent souls whose supplications and sacrifices daily ascend to God is a great strength to the Mystical Body of Christ. Before God, prayer is more powerful than an arm of steel. The salvation of another man’s soul may depend upon me. God gave to every man the command of loving his neighbor. On Golgotha, Christ looked down on His little flock, composed of the 3 Mary’s and St. John. Please God, give me the courage to keep vigil with them at the foot of the Cross.
Sanctifying Grace lifts man into the world of grace where the good he does and the evil he avoids, becomes infinitely meritorious.
By prayer we become, with Christ, the co-saviors of our brothers, helping God in the great work of Redemption without ever taking from Him one mite of glory. Prayer is a kind of priesthood without its responsibility. Through prayer, there is no limit to the number of souls we can reach. We cannot say one prayer for someone in need without receiving from the Hand of God a shower of graces for ourselves. Prayer is all embracing! It puts its arms around the whole world and draws all men closer to God. Everyone who asks receives!Beneath the Cross, the Mother of God did what you do in the Morning Offering: She gave to God all that she had for the salvation of souls. Every sacrifice is an act of adoration and reparation. While the ritual of prayer is not the sacrifice, the offering of it is. In our prayer of adoration, we admit our dependence on God and God’s absolute rights over us. In the Morning Offering, we give our life over to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sin is the assertion of our independence of God which directly contradicts the fact of our creature-hood.
Every sin is a denial of adoration of God. Through the Morning Offering, we give to God the Lamb who was slain on the Cross. It is an act of adoration and contrition. Uniting our prayers, works, joys and sufferings with all the Holy Masses being offered in the whole world and all those participating in them, is a powerful act of adoration, reparation and love.
Because of the living union we enjoy with one another and with Christ, we are able to do by the omnipotence of prayer some of the things which God does on the strength of His perfection. The wounded Heart of Mary at the foot of the Cross beckons all who look at her to ponder the focus of her love, and its complete devotedness to the Heart of God. It does not say, Love Me; it says, Love Him! Mary and the Son of God surrender themselves to one another completely. By His Passion, the Word of God, made man, fathered the new mankind. By her compassion, by her close physical and spiritual union with the Crucified, Mary, as Mother, brought forth the new mankind. Mary is the Mediatrix of all Graces.
 Christ is the Head of the Mystical Body; Mary is its Heart!
On the occasion of the Jubilee at Fatima, Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On December 8, he solemnly renewed the consecration in the Basilica of St. Peter, at Rome. The consecration is the prayer of the Pope to Mary Immaculate. In it, he asks that our Mother grant to us many things. He does not ask for them as an outright gift, something she might obtain for us with no effort on our part, as one might ask for a miracle. NO! The prayer is a dedication, a consecration! The peace for which the Father of Christendom asks is the victory to which the Vicar of Christ will lead his people after they have fought for it and merited the grace of it. The consecration is the knight’s vigil on the eve of battle. He comes to Mary’s altar because the morrow’s battle will be in her honor and for the Kingdom of her Son. The Son through the Mother, the Mediatrix of All Graces, will give strength to the warrior’s right arm. But the man will wield the sword, not some angel. When there are enough right arms, strong in grace, the Mystical Body will be an irresistible fighting unit, spiritually armed and operating as one, able to overcome all those forces in the world that the devil can muster against it.
 What does Our Lady ask all those consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart to do? Daily make the Morning Offering, pray the Rosary, confess and receive Holy Communion on First Saturday in reparation, and offer up the sacrifice of Daily Duty for the salvation of poor sinners. The Mystical Body needs health to grow and defend itself. We speed the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth by devoting ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mother and Son have always carried on the labor of Redemption together. Each morning, dedicate your day to Jesus through Mary.
Make faithfully and Fervently your Morning Offering. It is the most Important ACT of your day!
We cannot separate the apostleship of prayer from the apostleship of suffering for, by it, we offer to God our prayers, works and sufferings through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our physical sufferings are nothing compared to the sufferings of our soul. Stand on any street comer, and look at the many sad faces, furrowed by worry and fear, masking the dark labyrinths of the mind where the soul wrestles with anxiety, loneliness, hurt, ingratitude and sorrow. When the Messiah came to us, He came as the Man of Sorrows. Because we are incorporated in Christ, none of man’s problems can be solved on the basis of individualism. No man is a being unto himself. He is everlastingly a part of the Body of Christ, who was the priest of His own sacrifice. Through suffering, we will have in our own body a Relic of the True Cross! The passion was everything that Divine Justice would demand from a sinful world as the price of those heavenly graces which would flood it and wash it clean. The work of pain is finished for Christ the Head. But His members still must suffer. The more we detest sin, the greater will be our efforts to destroy it – the better will be our prayer!
“To know Christ More intimately, To love Him more ardently, And to follow Him More closely!”
This is the mission of the Church and each one of us who love Jesus has an intimate part in it.
Never fail to plunge into the Ocean of Grace offered to us, each day, through the Morning Offering. In doing this, we will with one voice, one heart and one soul, greatly hasten the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  O MY GOD, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the Altars throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day. I desire to gain every indulgence and merit I can, offering them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate whom Thou hast appointed the dispenser of the merits of Thy Precious Blood, especially by means of this Scapular (here kiss your Brown Scapular) that She may best apply them to the interests of Thy Most Sacred Heart. Amen.
One OUR FATHER, HAIL MARY and GLORY BE Sweet Heart of Mary, Be My Salvation! A Little While Longer, And Then ETERNITY!
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Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Thursday, March 15, 2012
March 17th, 2012|
Thanks Be To God For His Infinite Goodness To Me!
The continual realization of the greatness of God filled his soul with a sovereign contempt for earthly things and, hence, his absolute disinterestedness: His joy at being able to give to the poor, the sick, the widows and the orphans. His patience in trials was most edifying and no complaint was ever heard to pass his lips. The RULE of life he wrote in his own hand was kept until his death: 1. Every morning when saying my prayers, I will ask especially for the virtue of humility. 2. Every day, I will hear Mass, say the Rosary, and read a chapter from the Imitation of Christ. 3. I will take care to keep myself as much as possible in the presence of God, especially in conversation, so as not to speak useless words. Before beginning any action, I will offer my heart to God. 4. I will say to myself continually: demon “I am worse than a and deserve Hell”; when I am tempted, I will ask myself: “What will you think of this in the hour of your last agony?” 5. In my room, I will never sit to pray when I can do so on my knees or standing. I will practice little acts of humility, like kissing the ground for example, and desire all kinds of humiliations, while taking care at the same time not to deserve them, I will rejoice when my actions or my person are abused or censured. 6. I will never speak of myself, unless it be to own my defects or faults. 7. I will make every effort, through the thought of Jesus and Mary, to restrain my impatience and contradict my natural inclinations, striving to be patient and amiable even with people who bore me. Never will I speak evil of my enemies. 8. Every morning, before beginning my work, I will write down what I have to do, being very careful to distribute my time well, to give myself only to useful and necessary business and to continue it with zeal and perseverance. I will scrupulously observe the laws of justice and truth, and have no intention in my actions save the greater glory of God. 9. I will make a particular examine, twice a day, on my exercise of different 10. I will avoid all familiarities, even the most innocent, as prudence requires. I will never pass more than an hour in any amusement and, in general, never before eight o’clock in the evening. Those who knew him, bear witness to his scrupulous fidelity to this Rule of life. No matter what the demands of office, home or war obliged, he lived up to the Rule. He never omitted any pious practice, in camp or on a hurried journey; he would kneel in some hut or corner of the tent, or in the woods, and say the Rosary with his aide or anyone else who was present. When it drew time for Holy Mass, he would often prepare the vestments for the priest and serve Mass. In the evening surrounded by his family, servants and aides-de-camp, he would read night prayers, read from pious books and express to all his love and confidence in God. The one ambition of his noble soul was the reign of God in the souls of men. He had a great and tender love for Our Blessed Mother. He restored the shrine of the Lily of Quito. He would ask his people, visitors or workers, “Do you love the Blessed Virgin Mary? If they answered, “Oh! YES, with all our hearts,” he would say, “Well then, my children, let us kneel down all together and pray her Rosary that we may persevere in loving and serving God.” The Catholic Church universally applauds this President of Ecuador, Gabriel Garcia Moreno. Honor and glory be to him who dared to say: “A Catholic People Cannot Socially Deny Jesus Christ!” The secret society of Freemasonry seeks to unite itself with the devil to destroy the reign of Jesus Christ upon earth, to destroy Christianity. It is the great enemy. Their rage against Garcia Moreno was universal and all Freemasonic newspapers throughout the world held him up for execution and he was solemnly condemned to death by their Great Council. At the opportune moment, the assassins attacked him, cutting off his arm and his hand and inflicting deadly wounds to his body. He was laid at the feet of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows where he expired. The body of Garcia Moreno was placed in a secretly and provisionally unknown grave in order to protect it from the risk of sacrilegious profanation. While we may not have the courage today to die for the faith, let us begin simply with the Rule of life set out by Garcia Moreno in his youth. Faithful to this Rule, with the strength of God, we will rise to the height of martyrdom if and when we are called. A Little While Longer, And Then ETERNITY! |
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Gabriel Garcia Moreno was a Catholic, a President and a Martyr. He valued his precious Faith more than anything in his life and, in his youth, he formed a program of spirituality that he kept all the days of his life in spite of the horrendous demands made upon his time and energies. He lived in times violent and corrupt and is a wonderful ideal of father, husband, and soldier of Jesus Christ.Weekly News Flash from the Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, Wednesday, March 7, 2012
March 12th, 2012|
Conceived of the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary
The entire life of Our Lady from her Immaculate Conception to her glorious Assumption is a symbol of the whole life of the Church and of our own spiritual lives. The history of the Church begins in the womb of the Virgin. Mary and the Church are two, yet one single mother, two virgins, yet one. Each is virgin, each is mother. Both conceived of the same Holy Spirit, without human seed. Both bore to God the Father a Child unblemished. Both are the Mother of Christ, but neither can bring Him to birth without the other. The Church in the development of Her piety is guided by the Holy Ghost, and devotion to Holy Mother the Church cannot possibly run counter to our devotion to the Mother of God. The whole mystery of the Church is inseparably bound up with the mystery of Mary. We need to learn to see Our Lady in the Church and the Church in Our Lady. Our Blessed Mother is the Bride of the Holy Spirit and the Church is the Bride of Christ. We must be spiritual men to comprehend the mystery of Mary in the Church. What is needed, today, is a return to the Heart of Mary, so that our love of the Church as our Mother may grow together with our love for the Mother of Jesus. God’s first words of salvation spoken outside the locked gates of Paradise indicate a woman, “I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and her seed; she will crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Gen.3:15) The Lord hath spoken it. Satan is cast out of Heaven. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception is not only a personal privilege granted to Mary who was to become the Mother of God but also, through it, Mary becomes a figure of the Church. The Church is, therefore, the Woman fulfilling both Eve and Mary; She is at war throughout history, and Hers is the victory at the end. The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God is, in the deepest sense, the consummation and the reality of our own personal salvation. The final battle is still to come, for the serpent lies in wait for the Woman’s heel. Look well at the Woman in the sky clothed with the sun, crowned with twelve stars, and with the moon spread underneath her feet; yes, it is indeed she, our Mother, it is indeed the Church. We can certainly say that the Woman of the Apocalypse is Mary, because she is the Mother of the Church, having given birth to the Head of the Church, and herself being the Daughter of the Church, and the holiest of its members. ‘Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in all the world!’
Every time, we proclaim our belief in the Church, we are paying honor to Mary; and every witness of our love for Mary is a witness of our belief in the Church, for in Mary the Church became the Virgin Mother of God. What happened with Mary through the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, is daily renewed mystically within the Church. The Church is in labor and travail, until Christ is formed in us and born of us. Whoever has childlike devotion to Mary, has found entrance to the deepest mystery of the Church. Mary is, indeed, the Mother of Christ’s members, that is, of ourselves. It is by her love that men have been born in the Church. It is through the mystery of the marriage, both human and divine at the incarnation, that our redemption began.
The Church is Mary in the world. In this journey through everyday life to the Cross, we find a new aspect of the mystery of Mary and the Church: the mystery of her inner strength amid ordinary life, unswerving faithfulness to Christ and powerful patience which enables her to go with Christ to Calvary and share in the joy of His Resurrection. Mary’s acceptance of the Incarnation was her acceptance of death. She gave her blood to Him, only that He might shed it for us. In Mary and in the Church, the destitute world becomes rich, and starving mankind is fed lavishly. Love is the fruit of our Baptism. It is by the spindle of true love in our every day tasks that we learn to meet Christ Crucified. Only on the Cross is found the true measure of our love.
The Church’s history on earth is already a heavenly mystery: for She is always on the point of extinction. She is frequently persecuted and abides on the hill of Calvary. She is clothed with the sun in her heavenly glory and yet upon earth is always in the pains of childbirth. And, so it is true of the Christian who is in travail until Christ is formed in him and born of him. This new birth can happen only by dying to himself each day, that he may receive the life of God’s glory. The final history of the body of the Woman who gave birth to God is the Assumption, the fulfilling in advance of what is promised to the whole Mystical Body of Christ. The prince of this world, the devil, was already defeated by the Woman, when the Word of God became the Fruit of her womb: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Word. THE ETERNAL FIAT!” The final glory of Mary is the final glory of the Church. When the Church celebrates the Assumption, She is celebrating her own final glory. Jesus and Mary are preparing for us a new paradise, which is the Church in all Her glory. Mary is always present within the Church in her express title, “Mother of Grace”. In her painful pilgrimage here on earth and through her painful history and purification by persecution, Holy Mother the Church must become like to Mary, who without blemish gave birth to her Son. Only then, will the Church wash away every blemish in those she brings to birth through Baptism.
Ave Maria Gratia Plena! |
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The virginity of the Church means that She preserves intact Her faith in Christ. Heresy means loss of that virginity; it is breaking off the betrothal to Christ. Early Christians said that the Church, like Mary, is ever virgin and can never fall into Eve’s unfaithfulness. This is no more and no less than we say today with our doctrine of the Church’s infallibility. Heresy is unchaste; it is adultery towards Christ. The mystery of the perpetual virginity of Mary is dogma: A chaste womb shelters Christ in His physical and in His mystical Body.
The deep significance of the marriage at Cana and the wedding feast is critical to our understanding of both Mary and the Church. Humanity is being changed into the wine of the life of grace while Mary is there. She is the Mother of all who are sanctified by their faith in coming to God. Whatever errors be taught in the false services of infidels, come from a denial of the incarnation which begins with a refusal to honor God’s holy Mother and, which continues with a rejection to honor the virginity of the Church.
Where the mother of Jesus is not, there can be no marriage! Jesus at Cana spoke of His hour ‘which was to come,’ the hour of His Death on the Cross, when His Blood was poured out for man’s salvation. On Calvary, the Church was given to Mary, “Woman, behold thy Son!”, and Mary was given to the Church, “Son, behold thy Mother!” Mary and the Church are one: The Woman at the foot of the Cross is the Woman of promise who would overcome Satan. Beneath the victorious Cross of the dying God stands the Woman who has won all of God’s battles, the holy Ecclesia! How lovable she is, this Mother of ours! Let us offer thanks to the Father and to Christ, Our Brother, that we have the privilege to be the Children of Mary, Our Mother, and of Holy Mother the Church. There can be no contradiction between a tender devotion to Mary and a deep love for the Church.
Pentecost is the very pinnacle of our Redemption because the charity of God is poured into our hearts. Here, indeed, is fulfilled in all mankind what was begun in the heart of the Virgin at the Incarnation. The Heart of Mary is the beginning of the story; in her heart was performed in secret, what now at Pentecost, is open to the gaze of all mankind. The heart of Mary is the original upper room, where all redeemed mankind is gathered. Her heart is the vessel filled by the Holy Spirit. In her, we find all prophecies are fulfilled; in her begins the life of heavenly glory! Everything has its beginning in the Heart of Mary, and in her womb. The heart of the mystery of the Virgin Mary and the virgin Church, is the humble obedience of faith which opens itself in complete love and trust to the Holy Spirit Who overshadows her. In the midst of her heart, Eternity entered Time!
“ We have, without hesitation, consecrated all mankind to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May she, the most holy Mother of all the members of Christ, radiant now in body and soul in Heaven, and gloriously reigning with her Son, earnestly implore of Him, that mighty streams of grace may ceaselessly flow from the majestic Head upon all the members of the Mystical Body.” Pope Pius XII, 1943 – Mystici Corporis