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By Thy Immaculate Conception, O Virgin Mary, Counsel, Protect and Defend Us! Dear Apostles of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, It is with great sorrow, I share the sudden death of my little sister. This angel of mercy spent herself entirely. She helped everyone with everything, forever, without hesitation, and with never a thought of herself. She simply burned on and on, until she was totally burned out. She gave herself in love to all souls, generously and tirelessly, all for Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May Sister Mary Francisca rest in eternal peace! I have traveled to Idaho for the funeral and to spend ten days with my dear mother who is blind. Please pray for my mother, Dorothy Klotz, who is absolutely devastated by this loss. Sister did everything for mom.
Only love can make a soul pleasing to God and nothing but love. All our words and works are nothing in His sight, unless we abide in Him and He in us. Prayer imparts to us His Spirit. Mary was the first living Pyx of Jesus Christ. In our godless world, full of ignorance and ambition, chaotic darkness enshrouds us and all is crumbling. The things and people in whom we have placed our trust have proved worthless reeds. Without God, we can do nothing! What is needed are many souls who will each be a true living Pyx in which Our Lord will find a home where He is cherished and loved, and from which He can emanate the sweet sunshine of His Adorable Presence. Mary’s children will be God-bearers bringing the Indwelling Presence of the Triune God into the world. Let us be that spiritual vessel united to Mary which brings Christ to a dying world. This can be accomplished only by the total immolation of self. United with Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, we will carry His Love into the lives of others. Three times, Satan met total defeat through the Immaculate Conception. In the great Heaven of creation, the brilliant archangel Lucifer was shown God’s plan for salvation, and he cried out, “I WILL NOT SERVE”; in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer temped and lied to Eve seducing her to believe she would know as much as God. He was driven from Paradise and the eternal curse was placed upon his head: “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) Now is the final battle for souls. Mary Mediatrix, the Immaculate Conception, and all those consecrated to her Immaculate Heart will be the heel which crushes the serpent’s head. The Miraculous Medal is a physical shield in this battle which proclaims her victory and each one who wears this Medal is protected by her powerful intercession. Let us sacrifice and labor to reach all souls with this precious gift of the Most Blessed Trinity: the Medal of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception. Love watcheth and sleeping slumbereth not. When weary, it is not tired; when straightened, it is not constrained; when frightened, it is not disturbed, but like a vivid flame and a burning torch, it mounteth upward and securely passeth through all! United with Mary, let us go forward and love, for Love Alone Matters!
Please pray for me as I will pray for you all the days of my life! |
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Dear ULRA members, Greetings from the Holy Land, the land made holy by the presence of the Prophets and Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Mother Mary, the Apostles and the countless faithful followers of Christ! Here the Eternal, Almighty and Merciful God became Man Himself. As a pilgrims’ guide, I have the privilege of visiting and praying in the different shrines where each of the Rosary Mysteries took place. In the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass especially on Calvary and the Most Holy Tomb of Our Lord, I place the list of your names under the corporal to signify that I entrust to the merciful God all your pains and sufferings, your joys and hopes, your struggles and your good works. I do remember you in the monthly Novena of Masses and in my daily prayers of the Rosary. I unite all my prayers with your special intentions in these shrines. I was informed by our central office in Texas that we need to raise funds for the minting of the Miraculous Medals. We know this Medal to be an invaluable missionary tool. We cannot give everyone a Rosary, but up until now, we have been able to give everyone a MM. The doctor, who has donated them all, is no longer able to fund the project. However, each one of us can contribute generously for this important endeavor. Thus, Satan, who wants to stop the distribution of the Miraculous Medal throughout the world, would be defeated through the Immaculate Conception! May God reward you abundantly for your generosity! Prayerful best wishes, Fr. Angelo Ison, ofm – Jerusalem
Conceived of the Holy Ghost,
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 ‘Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in all the world!’ 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.
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.
“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 |
Through our prayers, we are actively helping those who are suffering profoundly through disaster, broken families and the plague of disease. We become our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper through prayer, apostle-ship and our generous moral and financial support to the ULRA. Pauline knew so well that it takes all three to have united Catholic families, a strong Church, and to bring souls back to God. Each one of us must do his part and, no matter how small it is, when we are united with the Body of Christ on earth, each prayer, penny and sacrifice has infinite value. Each one of you can make a difference. No one else can do what you can do, the way you can do it, in the plans that God has for making this world His Kingdom. This is the great power of prayer. Together, we can hasten the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and obtain world peace and the Reign of Christ the King on earth.
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 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.
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.
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!
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.