Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena (ULRA)

Please do not be discouraged when you fail to convince someone to return to the Sacraments, or to trust God. Never get caught up in an argument with them. No one is inspired to conversion by debates. People become defensive when their views are challenged and, then, they close their ears and their hearts, and they cannot listen with understanding to what you are saying. The Holy Ghost grants Understanding; it is His Gift, and He works through love and compassion. The Apostle Paul preached Christ Crucified; not a pleasant topic, but very persuasive in showing God’s Love for us. We preach most effectively by the sacrifices we make for others in His name. Our service and compassion for others is a visible monument to the Love which God bears for each one of us. We must be patient, trust God and continue, day after day, loving the soul, in word and in deed, for whom we petition a return to God. The Grace will be given not because of our efforts, but because God is Good!

Let us beg God to strengthen our faith, confirm our hope and increase our love for Him Who has loved us even unto death. May the inward unction of Sanctifying Grace penetrate our souls, soften our hearts, strengthen our wills and consecrate our whole being in the service of Our Savior! We beg all the saints of God, glorious temples of the Holy Spirit, to teach us to adorn the altar of our souls with the bright lights of good deeds and the beautiful flowers of virtue. Let us go forward into this world which is so filled with hate, pouring out the Heavenly Balm of God’s life-giving Love!

I carry each of you to the Altar with me and remember your personal needs and those of your family, living and departed. Remember me, please, in your good prayers.

Fr. IVAN KOLODIY
Byzantine Rite, Greek-Catholic Church, UKRAINE

Thank you so much for your incredible help for our missionary efforts. Things in the world, in the Church and in our country are critical. It seems almost overwhelming, yet all is in order, the Queen is in charge! When trials afflict us, let us no longer doubt, surrender to discouragement, or complain. Let us lovingly accept this gift from God. From its seed will sprout a stem whereon the flower of life will serenely unfold.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary enters into the life of a soul, She causes a radiant springtime to blossom there. Gloomy clouds of sadness, doubt and discouragement vanish, and the heart is flooded with peace and happiness.

Would you like your life to be transformed?

Would you like to practice easily the virtues that God asks of you

Would you like to share in the Joy of the Saints?

If you sincerely desire this, do not hesitate one second: Go to Mary! There is no more direct way to God than through Mary. By contemplating the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, you will learn to know her better, love her with greater tenderness, invoke her with increased confidence and serve her with unwavering fidelity. It is Mary who gives Jesus to the world. When we are baptized, we are given birth in the Life of Christ through Sanctifying Grace. This mysterious birth and growth of God within us is the work of the Virgin Mary. No Catholic should have the slightest doubt about this. Our Lady is She who bestows upon mankind the graces Our Savior merited for us by His Most Precious Blood. All the favors of Heaven come to us through the pure Heart of Mary!

Are you discouraged by trials? Suffering great tribulation? Have you abandoned prayer? Have you given up hope? Throw yourself instinctively into the arms of your heavenly Mother and pray to her. When you feel you no longer have the strength to murmur a simple Hail Mary, call out to her by her blessed name: Mary, help me! At that very moment, She will cover you with her mantle of grace and protection; She will heal you, console you and comfort you!

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

PATTI MELVIN, Director ULRA

Let us pray for one another.

Excellence of This True Devotion

It would require special light from God, says St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, to describe perfectly the excellence of this devotion. I will only say briefly:

1. By giving ourselves in this way to Jesus through Mary, we imitate in a certain sense the heavenly Father, Who also gave us His Son through Mary, and Who still communicates His Grace to us through Mary. We imitate God the Son, Who has come to us only through Mary and has set for us an example to act as He acted, to ascend to Him by the same way as He descended to us, viz., through Mary. Finally, we imitate God the Holy Spirit, Who communicates His Graces and Gifts to us only through Mary, His inviolable Spouse. “Is it not right,” says St. Bernard, “that Grace should return to its Author through the same channel in which it was transmitted to us?”

2. To go in this way to Jesus Christ through Mary, is nothing less than acknowledging His infinite sanctity and honoring Him in a worthy manner. For, thereby, we plainly acknowledge that, on account of our sins, we are not worthy to approach His infinite holiness directly and we have need of Mary, His holy Mother, to be our advocate and mediatrix with Him. Moreover, we confidently approach Him as our most kind Mediator and Brother, and at the same time, we abase ourselves before Him as our God and our Judge, and thus, practice a most pleasing humility.

3. To consecrate ourselves in this way to Jesus, through Mary, is to place in the hands of Mary all our actions which, however good they may appear, are often spoiled on account of our self-love and self-will. By this devotion, we place them in the hands of our good Mother with the petition that She purify, sanctify and embellish them so as to render them worthy and acceptable to God, and that She herself present and offer our good works to Our Lord.

The situation in which we are placed might be compared to that of a peasant who owes his king a great sum of money but has nothing in his possession except some fruit, which is not even in the best condition. Now, would it be fitting for this peasant to take his fruit personally to the king and offer it to him for the debt he owes? Certainly not! If he were at all prudent, he would try to win the favor of the queen and offer the fruit to her. The queen, partly to please the simplicity and confidence of the poor peasant, and partly to show her esteem for the king, would graciously receive the gift; and after removing from the fruit what is not good, she would take the remainder, place it on a beautiful plate of gold and offer it to the king. Could the king refuse to accept the gift, small as it is, if it were brought to him by his loving queen, in the name of the peasant whom she desired to favor?

Similar is our relation to God, Our Lord, and to our heavenly Queen. “If you wish to offer anything to God,” says St. Bernard, “place it in Mary’s hands.”

Great and holy God, exclaims St. Louis de Montfort, how little is all we can do! All our income, that is, all the good we perform, is in reality of little more value than the poor worm-eaten fruit of the peasant. But, let us by this devotion place it all in Mary’s hands and God will accept our good works with satisfaction. As we have given ourselves entirely to Her, despoiling ourselves of everything in Her honor, this heavenly Queen will be infinitely more generous toward us than was the earthly queen toward the peasant. For the slightest offering, She will certainly impart to us most precious Graces and blessings. She will give herself to us with all Her merits and Graces; She will place our offering on the golden plate of Her virtues. She will, furthermore, clothe us with the merits of Her Divine Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, shall we as Her slaves, having despoiled ourselves of everything in Her honor, be clad in double garments, namely, the merits and virtues of Jesus and those of Mary, our august Mother.

4. To give ourselves to the Blessed Virgin, is to practice charity to our neighbor in the highest possible degree, for it is to give to Mary all that we hold most dear, all available fruits of our good works and sufferings, in order that She may dispose of them at Her good pleasure in favor of the living and the dead.

5. By this devotion, we place our Graces and merits in safekeeping, for Mary is their guardian. We may say to Her with confidence: “See, my dear Mother, my kind Mistress, here is the good which, by the Grace of thy dear Son, I have been enabled to do. I am not able to keep it because of my weakness and inconstancy, and because of the number and malice of my enemies who ceaselessly attack me. Ah! My great and powerful Queen, do thou hold it for me, lest I be robbed of it; all that I have I confide to thy trust, do thou preserve it. The words of St. Paul: ‘I know whom I have trusted,’ I can well apply to thee. I know well who thou art, O Mary; that is why I entrust myself entirely to thee, with all that I am and all that I have. Thou art the Virgin most faithful and true to God and men. Thou wilt not suffer anything to perish of that which I entrust to thee; thou art the Virgin most powerful.”

“When you follow Mary,” says St. Bernard, “you will not go astray; when you pray to Her, you will not despair; when you think of Her, you will make no mistake; when She holds you up, you will not fail; when She protects you, you need not fear; under Her guidance, you will not grow weary; under Her favor, you will arrive at your journey’s end in the harbor of safety.” And, elsewhere, he says of Mary: “She restrains the Son that He strike not; She keeps back the devil that he harm not; She holds fast the virtues that they vanish not; She holds fast the merits that they be not lost; She holds fast the Graces that they do not disappear.”

These words of St. Bernard, writes St. De Montfort, express in substance all that I have said. Was there only this one motive to incite me to the practice of this devotion: that it is a sure means of keeping me in the Grace of God, I ought most ardently to desire and embrace it.

Truly, this devotion bestows on us the liberty of the Children of God. As for love of Mary, we have freely made ourselves slaves so She, out of gratitude, causes us to walk with giant steps in the way of God’s Commandments. Mary frees the soul from weariness, sadness and scruples. It was this devotion that Our Lord taught to the Ven. Mother Agnes of Jesus of the Order of Saint Dominic, as a sure means of deliverance from Her interior sufferings and anguish of soul. “Make thyself My Mother’s slave,” He said to her. She did so, and soon all her fears and troubles vanished.

Please be assured our group of students here is doing fine. They remain committed to the devotion of performing the 9:00 p.m. habit of praying the Holy Rosary. We might have faced recent challenges, especially that a strong typhoon struck our country, but we still feel God’s Grace through the intercession of Saint Philomena and Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary and Mediatrix of All Grace.

Your gift makes us strong in our devotion. Please accept our heartfelt thanks. We shall send photos soon. For now, here is a photo of our prayer gathering last September 12, Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace. God bless the ULRA! Viva Santa Filomena! Always ONE with you,

Weldann Lester – Navotas City, PHILIPPINES

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.

Please Click here to Share Your Gift of Faith