Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena (ULRA)

Perfection does not consist in receiving great gifts from God, but in simply adhering to the Will of God in all imaginable situations in which Providence may place us, whether interior or exterior. We ought to desire our progress and perfection only as much as God wishes it and by the means He wishes. The whole rule of our life is God’s Will. On the last day, we will be judged in accord of our good works. Our good works are those in accordance with God’s Will at the moment we do them. They are a renunciation of self; they are the gift of ourselves to God. It is right to desire our own salvation and our own perfection, but we ought to desire it not only for our sake, but still more for God’s sake, because He wishes it and has made us for Himself. Charity is not a love which wants to receive, but a love which longs to give. God’s Love is always a gift, always Charity!

We live in God, bathed in His action upon us through the creatures around us and our own reactions to them. We can be perfect, here and now, by being exactly as God wishes us to be here and now. This moment is the most precious of all moments. No other moment is in our power. We need not worry about what is to come; by hope, we abandon to God the care of tomorrow. Our holy perseverance, death and eternity are all in His Hands. It is only in the present moment we can merit, act and love. We must have confidence in Him for the past and for the future. He insists on this as our safeguard against worry and despondency: the great dangers of all dangers! Upon this, God insists the Sacrament of the Moment! If we seek Him, we have found Him!

I remain, one with you in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

PATTI MELVIN, Director ULRA

Let us pray for one another.

TO JESUS THROUGH MARY! (continued)

The motives which St. Louis de Montfort brings forward in urging this Consecration, together with the excellence of the devotion and the wonderful benefits to be derived from it, are given in abridged form:

Of the Sublime End for which we have been created

We have been created to know God, to love Him and serve Him in this life, in order to possess Him in the next and be eternally happy in this possession. Not for temporal happiness have we come into this world, neither to become famous, obtain high honors, great wealth or comforts nor to live according to our desires. We are here to seek God, to do His Divine Will, to become holy and attain to Eternal Salvation. Sanctity of life and eternal happiness: This is the expression of the Will of God in our behalf; this is our sublime vocation, the end for which God has created us according to His image; this is why He has given us understanding and a free will, our bodily faculties and all other gifts; and for this purpose, He has preserved our life and intends to prolong it. To this end, all our thoughts, words and works, all our sufferings and endeavors should be directed.

What an admirable work: Darkness to be changed into light, clay of this earth into an immortal being, sin into holiness, the creature into a partaker of the divine nature and man into a son of God!

Admirable work, I repeat it, says Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, but very difficult in itself and impossible to mere nature. All the achievements of the human mind and all the knowledge of the world cannot bring us a step nearer to this supernatural end. God alone can do this by His all-powerful Grace.

Means of Salvation

“Soul, what will you do?” De Montfort asks. What means will you employ to attain to this infinitely sublime destiny for which you have been created and called by God? And he replies: The means of salvation and holiness are known to all. They are mentioned in the Gospel, explained by the masters of the spiritual life and have ever been made use of by the Saints. They are true faith, childlike confidence in God, observance of the Commandments, a worthy reception of the Sacraments, frequent prayer, humility of heart, constant combat with our evil inclinations, conformity to the Will of God and perseverance in doing good.

To practice these virtues and to use these means of holiness and salvation, the Grace of God is absolutely necessary. God, though infinitely good, does not give equally great Graces to all nor at the same time; yet, because He wills that all men be saved, He gives to everyone, even the greatest sinner, necessary and sufficient Grace for his salvation. Without this necessary and sufficient Grace, it would be impossible for anyone to work out his salvation. God gives to all men especially the Grace of prayer. If we make proper use of it, we can obtain all other Graces.

Another means whereby we can obtain God’s Graces more easily and surely than we could by our own efforts, is Mary – devotion to Mary. St. Louis Grignion says simply: To find Grace, we must find Mary. In reality, the Church says the same when applying to Mary the words of Holy Scripture: “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.” (Prov. 8:35)

This truth is reiterated by very many spiritual writers. Thousands, yes, millions of souls have obtained salvation through Mary, through Her merits and intercession without which they would never have obtained. However, not for individuals alone has Mary obtained most wonderful Graces, but whole nations have, through Her, obtained knowledge of the Truth and Salvation. St. Alphonsus Liguori says, “It is well-known that, by devotion to Mary, Saint Bernardine of Siena sanctified the people of Italy and St. Dominic, by the same means, converted many provinces in France and Italy.” And, let us add that St. Louis de Montfort, by this particular devotion to Mary, delivered a great portion of France from the gloomy and despairing doctrines of the Jansenistic heresy.

“ABANDONMENT ALONE GUIDES ME; I HAVE NO OTHER COMPASS!”

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

The road that leads to the divine furnace of God’s Love is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father’s Arms. There are three stages in our surrender to God:

1. The first stage consists of accepting and assenting to God’s Will as it manifests itself in all the circumstances of our lives.

2. The second stage is actively doing God’s Will at every moment of our lives.

3. The third stage is to be so completely abandoned to God that one is a pliant tool in His Hands.

It is not God’s Will that people hate, fight one another or murder others, but He allows this evil to become part of His plan for our salvation. It was not the Father’s Will that His Son be killed, but Jesus freely sacrificed Himself for the sins of mankind. Many of our sufferings come from the hands of hateful and cruel men; nevertheless, it is the Father Who asks us to drink this bitter cup. It was so for Jesus, and it is the same for us.

Suffering does not signify a lack of love on the part of the Father; suffering is not in vain if it bears redemptive power. God makes use of evil in such a superb way and with such skill that the result is better than if there had never been evil. Nothing falls outside of God’s plan. All that is in God’s Will brings us peace of body and soul. He is always there. Everything speaks to us of Him. We must die to ourselves, and let God form our lives from moment to moment while we continually consent to His action. We seek Him in great things, while He continually communicates and reveals Himself to us in small things.

How often it happens that God allows a difficult and evil person to provide what is needed to make us saints. If we do not dare to walk hand in hand with God, whose hand shall we choose to hold? Can God lead us astray? He knows exactly what we need. Everything He gives us is carefully measured out according to our needs. How much energy we expend in resisting God!

Have confidence! If you do not receive what you feel you need, trust God that you do not need it. God has experienced the indifference, hardness and cruelty of mankind. He has suffered through all your anguish, loneliness and despair. Everything that wounds you has wounded Him first. He has freely taken all of it upon Himself. Never can you say that you are alone in what you suffer. Our Eucharistic Lord comes to us wounded and sacrificed! May our suffering be most meaningful and fruitful!

God is there in our lives in everything that happens. Obedience to God’s Will is something that influences and permeates our whole existence. Our Blessed Mother lived with Her eyes continually turned toward God, Who speaks to us from without and from within. We hear His word from the Bible and through the Church. For a Christian, the Church is Mater et Magistra. A Catholic never chooses anything but obedience and nothing more: God’s Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. The mark of a Catholic is Patience! Only a humble man is patient.

We often live in the past and in the future. The only thing that matters is the present: to be docile, attentive and obedient to God’s Holy Will now! Let us not listen to our conflicting impulses, “I like” “I don’t like.” The deep will within us wants God, moves towards Him, and finds its satisfaction in Him alone.

The third stage of surrender is the most perfect and few there are who reach this stage of total surrender. The Spirit is prepared to lead us at all times. Are we prepared to let ourselves be led? Apart from God, we can do nothing. In order to reach this stage, we must be prepared to give up all our own plans and desires. Everything must be offered up. The total surrender of self and all our faculties must be given over. The devil fights mightily that this sacrifice be not made. All that brings peace, submission, sweetness and confidence, has the seal of God upon it, for truly it is a matter of all or nothing! We hang in the balance between Heaven and Hell. A hurricane of love is raging over all the earth. God is tugging, pleading, weeping, shouting: “If you love Me: Let Go, Give In, Trust Me, Surrender!”

Are we doing everything we can possibly do to help each other? We must all trust in God and not fear any persecution, but work as much as we are able, for the good of souls and glory of God. Fear is the beginning of betrayal! We have to fear only that we work and worry too little about the things of Christ and the Church, and that there is too little sacrifice in our lives. Let us not be soft with ourselves. Lean on Christ and we will be unbeatable. Let us resign ourselves completely to the Will of God, repeating the words of the little Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: “God will not abandon those who trust in Him!”

Share Your Gift of Faith

For centuries, our cherished Catholic faith has been passed from person to person, parent to child, etc. Each of us carries in our heart a special memory of how God first graced us with the knowledge of the faith and how Our Blessed Mother, Saint Philomena, Venerable Pauline Jaricot and other saints changed our lives and brought us closer to Christ.

In our work in the Universal Living Rosary Association, we see first hand how millions of souls are currently living without that knowledge of God and are living outside of His grace. We have been given a beautiful opportunity to carry out Christ’s work and pass on our faith and blessings to others who would otherwise never be introduced to Our Lord, the Savior of all mankind. Just as we pray for the souls in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them, we should also make it a part of our life’s mission to pass on our faith to as many souls as possible who have no one else to pass it on to them, who don’t know Our Lord and His promise of salvation.

This is the box we send out to the foreign Missions $77.95. It contains Rosaries, Scapulars, Miraculous Medals, Cord & Oil, Newsletters, Calendars, Catechism books, 2 TAN books, large color prints, lists and encouragement for our Promoters.

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