PRAYERS TO OUR LADY

DAY 22 OF 33 TOTAL CONSECRATION

Begin With The Following Prayers:

Come Holy Ghost fill the hearts of Thy faithful...

From True Devotion To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nos. 106-110

Marks of authentic devotion to our Lady

106. First, true devotion to our Lady is interior, that is, it comes from within the mind and the heart and follows from the esteem in which we hold her, the high regard we have for her greatness, and the love we bear her.

107. Second, it is trustful, that is to say, it fills us with confidence in the Blessed Virgin, the confidence that a child has for its loving Mother. It prompts us to go to her in every need of body and soul with great simplicity, trust and affection.

108. Third, true devotion to our Lady is holy, that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary. Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom.

109. Fourth, true devotion to our Lady is constant. It strengthens us in our desire to do good and prevents us from giving up our devotional practices too easily. It gives us the courage to oppose the fashions and maxims of the world, the vexations and unruly inclinations of the flesh and the temptations of the devil. Thus a person truly devoted to our Blessed Lady is not changeable, fretful, scrupulous or timid.

110. Fifth, true devotion to Mary is disinterested. It inspires us to seek God alone in his Blessed Mother and not ourselves. The true subject of Mary does not serve his illustrious Queen for selfish gain. He does not serve her for temporal or eternal well-being but simply and solely because she has the right to be served and God alone in her.

Meditation: 1-Mary Our Mother

This will be the first thought in our minds that Mary, though a Virgin is also a Mother---the Mother of God and our Mother too. We will imprint upon our minds the fact that Mary loves us more, than our natural Mothers could possibly love us---even more then we could love ourselves. A Mother’s love is the most practical thing in existence. It is never satisfied with words, but is always pouring itself out on someone. Motherly love is also capable of the greatest sacrifices; it is born in suffering , and time serves only to increase its generosity and service.

If this is true of the Motherly love we have all experienced, what must be said of her, who became the Mother of Sorrows and the Queen of Martyrs for love of us? When we see her with the sword of Simeon plunged deeply into her heart, how can we ever doubt that her love for mankind is as practical as that of her Divine Son?

Since she became the Mother of Men, she has never stopped showing herself a Mother to all who have gone to her for help. He who is mighty has done great things to her; and she in turn, who is mighty through the power of her divine motherhood, has done great things for those who have sought her intercession. She has been and will continue to be the cause of our joy until the end of time.

Reflection: Mary’s Pure Heart

By St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Under the Old Law there were two precepts concerning the birth of first-born sons. One was that the mother was regarded as unclean and was to remain in her house for forty days and then purify herself in the Temple. The other was that the parents of the first-born son should take him to the Temple and offer him there to God.

On the day of her purification, the Blessed Virgin carried out both these precepts. Although she was not bound by the law of purification since she was still a virgin and was absolutely pure, Immaculate, nevertheless her humility and sense of obedience made Her wish to go and purify Herself like other mothers.

At the same time, she fulfilled the other precept by presenting and offering Her Son to the Eternal Father. And when the days of Her purification were fulfilled according to the law of Moses, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord [Lk. 2: 22]. But the Blessed Virgin did not offer Him as other mothers offered their sons. The others offered them to God, but they knew that this offering was a mere ceremonial fulfillment of the Law. By symbolically redeeming their children they made them truly their own, and they would not be obliged to sacrifice them to death at some other time. Mary, however, really offered Her Son to death. She knew for certain that the sacrifice of the life of Jesus which she was then making would actually be consummated on the altar of the cross. Because she loved Him so much, in offering the life of Her Son Mary actually sacrificed her entire self to God.

Let us leave aside all other considerations that we might reflect on today and dwell only on the greatness of the sacrifice Mary made of herself to God when She offered Him the life of Her Son. This will be the subject of our discourse.

The Eternal Father had already determined to save man who had fallen through sin, and to deliver him from eternal death. At the same time He willed that Divine justice should not be deprived of a worthy and fitting satisfaction. And so He did not spare the life of His Son Who had already become man to redeem men, but willed that He should pay with the utmost rigor the penalty which all men deserved. He who has not spared even His own Son, but has delivered Him for us all [Rom. 8: 32].

Sending Him to earth to become man, He gave Him a mother. He willed that this mother should be the Blessed Virgin. But since He willed that the Divine Word should not become Her Son before She had accepted Him by an express act of Her will, so He also willed that Jesus should not sacrifice His life for the salvation of mankind without the consent of Mary. The heart of the Mother was to be sacrificed along with the life of the Son.

St. Thomas teaches that the very office of motherhood gives mothers a special right over their children. [1] Thus, inasmuch as Jesus Himself was innocent and did not deserve punishment, it seemed only fitting that He should not be condemned to the Cross as a victim for the sins of the world without the consent of His Mother.

Now while Mary consented to His death from the moment that she became the Mother of Jesus, God nevertheless wished that She should make a solemn sacrifice of Herself in the Temple on this day by making a solemn offering of the life of Her Son. And it is because of this sacrifice that St. Epiphanius calls Mary a "priest." [2]

We begin to see now how much this sacrifice cost Mary in the way of sorrow, and what heroic virtue she had to practice in order to assent to the sentence of death passed on Her Son.

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Comment by Flavia Talladen Schott on January 23, 2023 at 11:58pm: Amen.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Mother of Our Redeemer, our Mother, pray for us.