Day 20 Total Consecration Preparation 2013

[Dawn Marie]

DAY 20

Purpose: Obtain Knowledge of the Blessed Virgin

Acts of love, pious affection for the Blessed Virgin, imitation of her virtues, especially her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual mental prayer, her mortification in all things, her surpassing purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness, and her divine wisdom: "there being," as St. Louis De Montfort says, "the ten principal virtues of the Blessed Virgin."

We must unite ourselves to Jesus through Mary - this is the characteristic of our devotion; therefore, Saint Louis De Montfort asks that we employ ourselves in acquiring a knowledge of the Blessed Virgin.

Mary is our sovereign and our mediatrix, our Mother and our Mistress. Let us then endeavor to know the effects of this royalty, of this mediation, and of this maternity, as well as the grandeurs and prerogatives which are the foundation or consequences thereof. Our Mother is also a perfect mold wherein we are to be molded in order to make her intentions and dispositions ours. This we cannot achieve without studying the interior life of Mary; namely, her virtues, her sentiments, her actions, her participation in the mysteries of Christ and her union with Him.

Today's Reading

Luke 2:16—21, 45—52

And they came with haste; and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child. And all that heard, wondered; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb....

And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.

Meditation: 

Getting to Know Mary

 

This week is devoted to meditating upon Mary and humbly asking God to grant us the grace to know Mary better.  We are about to attempt a difficult and serious thing.  We are to penetrate into a secret and hidden world of beauty, to discover its wondrous charms, so as to love it and dwell in it---just like God.  Who finds in it joy, contentment and where He reigns with all power and majesty.

We shall seek to know Mary.  We the sin-stained wretches of the earth, the rebels of creation, we shall seek to know her whom the angels do not sufficiently know.  We shall seek to uncover the secret that Mary is---a secret known only fully to God.  For He alone knows Mary and delights in Mary.  If we wish to know Mary then we must earnestly beg Him for this grace and privilege, and besides praying for it, we should also perform some penance, make some pilgrimage, or go to visit some Church named after her.

We must offer up some little acts of mortification, denial of our own will, our desires and tastes etc.  We must use every means possible to induce God to look favorably upon us and to grant our request.  We will turn to the angels and seek their intercession. We will beg the saints to plead with God for us.  We will pray for the souls in Purgatory and ask them in return, to pray to God that He might share His secret with us.

When we have done all this, when we have confessed our unworthiness, and heard or said Mass and received Our Divine Lord in her honor, we will then ask Him to grant this special favor of which we are so unworthy.

Meditation:

Taken from The Glories of Mary

Mary Is the Hope of All

PEOPLE outside the Church cannot endure our calling Mary our hope. They say that God alone is our hope, and that He curses those who put their trust in creatures, according to the prophet Jeremiah: Cursed is the person who trusts in human beings (Jer. 17:5).

Mary, they argue, is a creature, and how can a creature be our hope? But in spite of this the Church recommends that all priests and religious raise their voices every day in the name of all the faithful and call Mary by the sweet name of "Our Hope" --- the hope of all.

St. Thomas says that we can place our hope in a person in two ways --- as a principal cause and as a mediate cause. Thus those who expect something from a king put their trust in him as their sovereign, and in his ministers or his favorite as intercessors. When the favor is granted, it comes really from the king, though the favorite is the intermediary. Hence the petitioners have a right to call the minister or favorite through whom they received it their "hope."  The King of Heaven, being infinite Goodness, desires in the highest degree to enrich us with His graces. But because confidence is a necessary condition for being heard, and because He wants to increase our confidence, He has given us His own Mother as our Mother and intercessor, and has granted her all power to help us. So it is that He wishes us to place our hope for salvation and every blessing in her.

Those who put their hope in creatures alone, apart from God, as sinners do, and who do not hesitate to outrage the Divine Majesty, just to gain the friendship and patronage of another human being, are certainly cursed by God in the sense intended by Jeremiah. But those who put their trust in Mary, who (being the Mother of God) is able to secure grace and eternal life for them, are truly blessed and acceptable to the heart of God. Surely He desires to see this greatest of His creatures honored, since she loved and honored Him in this world more than all human beings and angels together .  Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to call the Blessed Virgin our hope. We trust, as St. Robert Bellarmine says, that we shall obtain through her intercession the graces we would not obtain through our own unaided prayers.

We pray to her so that the dignity of the intercessor may make up for our own lack of worthiness. And so our recourse to Mary in such a spirit does not come from any want of confidence in the mercy of God, but rather from fear of our own unworthiness.

"Hail then, O hope of my soul!" exclaims St. Ephrem; "Hail, O sure salvation of Christians; hail, helper of sinners; hail, fortress of the faithful and salvation of the world!"

St. Ephrem, reflecting on the present arrangement of Providence, by which God wills that all who are saved should be saved by the instrumentality of Mary, addresses her in these words: "O Lady, never cease watching over us. Keep and guard us under your wings of mercy, for, after God, we have no hope but in you."

St. Thomas of Villanova calls her our only refuge, help, and asylum.

St. Bernard expounds the reason behind this when he says: "See the designs of God --- designs which make it possible for Him to dispense His mercy more abundantly. For, desiring to save the whole human race, He has laid the full price of redemption in Mary's hands, letting her dispense it at her pleasure."

Hence we need not be surprised if St. Antonine applies to Mary this verse of the Book of Wisdom (8: 11): All good things together came to me in her company. And St. Bonaventure writes: "We ought to keep our eyes fixed on Mary's hands, that through them we may receive the graces we desire." "Poor children of Adam," says our Lord, addressing the world, "living among so many enemies, so many trials, take care to honor My Mother in a special way. She is also your Mother . "I have given her to the world to be its pattern, to teach you how to lead good lives, and to be your refuge in all trials and afflictions. I have made My Daughter with such care that no one could be afraid of her or in the least degree repelled.

"So I gave her such a kind and compassionate disposition that she does not know how to despise anyone who runs to her, nor how to refuse her favor to anyone who asks. The mantle of her mercy is spread for all, and she lets no one leave her feet without consolation."

Praise and benediction to the infinite goodness of God, because He gave us a Mother and advocate so strong, so tender, so loving!

How touching are the sentiments of confidence expressed by the enamored St. Bonaventure toward Jesus our most loving Redeemer and Mary our most loving advocate!

"Whatever lot God foresees for me, I know He can never go against His own nature and refuse Himself to any who love Him and seek for Him with all their heart. So I will cleave to Him with my love; and if He does not bless me, I will still cling to Him so passionately that He will not be able to move away without me.  "I will hide in the clefts of His wounds, so that if He looks for me it will be within Himself that He must find me. I will stay prostrate before the feet of His Mother that she may implore pardon for me.  "For Mary does not know how to refuse compassion. She has never learned how to let the comfortless go away uncomforted. And so, if not from any sense of justice or obligation, at least from her great sense of compassion she will persuade her Son to pardon me."

 

 

Prayers

Litany of the Holy Ghost

Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

[bernadette szczepkowski]

O Lady never cease watching over us.

[Alley]

With love!

[Alan]

We must offer up some little acts of mortification, denial of our own will, our desires and tastes etc.  We must use every means possible to induce God to look favorably upon us and to grant our request.  We will turn to the angels and seek their intercession. We will beg the saints to plead with God for us.

[Dawn Marie]

"For Mary does not know how to refuse compassion. She has never learned how to let the comfortless go away uncomforted. And so, if not from any sense of justice or obligation, at least from her great sense of compassion she will persuade her Son to pardon me."