Day 25 Total Consecration Preparation 2013

[Dawn Marie]

DAY 25

Today's Reading

True Devotion To the Blessed Virgin Mary: Nos. 213–225

Wonderful Effects of this Devotion

213. My dear friend, be sure that if you remain faithful to the interior and exterior practices of this devotion which I will point out, the following effects will be produced in your soul:

1. Knowledge of our unworthiness:

By the light which the Holy Spirit will give you through Mary, his faithful spouse, you will perceive the evil inclinations of your fallen nature and how incapable you are of any good. Finally, the humble Virgin Mary will share her humility with you so that, although you regard yourself with distaste and desire to be disregarded by others, you will not look down slightingly upon anyone.

2. A share in Mary's faith

214. Mary will share her faith with you. Her faith on earth was stronger than that of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints.

3. The gift of pure love

215. The Mother of fair love will rid your heart of all scruples and inordinate servile fear.

4. Great confidence in God and in Mary

216. Our Blessed Lady will fill you with unbounded confidence in God and in herself: 1) Because you will no longer approach Jesus by yourself but always through Mary, your loving Mother.

5. Communication of the spirit of Mary

217. The soul of Mary will be communicated to you to glorify the Lord. Her spirit will take the place of yours to rejoice in God, her Saviour, but only if you are faithful to the practices of this devotion.

6. Transformation into the likeness of Jesus

218. If Mary, the Tree of Life, is well cultivated in our soul by fidelity to this devotion, she will in due time bring forth her fruit which is none other than Jesus.

7. The greater glory of Christ

222. If you live this devotion sincerely, you will give more glory to Jesus in a month than in many years of a more demanding devotion.

Meditation:

Taken from The Glories of Mary 

 

CHAPTER 5 CONTINUED

 

TO THEE DO WE SEND UP OUR SIGHS, MOURNING AND WEEPING IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS
 

The Necessity of Mary's Intercession for Our Salvation

 

 

There is no doubt that Christ alone was more than sufficient to redeem us. Yet it was much more becoming that the two sexes should work together to repair the evil which the two had worked together to bring about. So St. Albert the Great calls Mary the "Co-helper of Redemption."  Our Blessed Lady made this revelation to St. Bridget: "Adam and Eve sold the world for a single apple; my Son and I bought it back with a single heart."

God was able to create the world out of nothing, but He is unwilling to restore it without the cooperation of Mary.

No person can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (Jn. 6:44). In similar words, says Richard of St. Lawrence, Jesus speaks of His Mother: "No one comes to Me unless My Mother draws that person by her prayers." Jesus was the fruit of Mary. Whoever wants the fruit must go to the tree. Whoever wants Jesus must go to Mary. whoever finds Mary will most certainly find Jesus. Are we then going to scruple to ask her to save us when (as St. Germanus says) no one is saved except through her?

St. John Damascene had no hesitancy in addressing our Lady in these words: "Pure and Immaculate Queen, save me, and deliver me from eternal damnation. St. Bonaventure called Mary the salvation of those who invoke her.  Cassian tells us, without. qualification, that "the whole salvation of the human race depends on the great favor and protection of Mary." Whoever is protected by Mary will be saved; whoever is not will be lost. Thus, Richard of St. Lawrence had good reason for saying: " As a stone falls into the abyss when the ground goes from under it, so a person deprived of Mary's help falls first into sin and then into Hell."

St. Bonaventure says: "God will not save us without the intercession of Mary." And again: " A child cannot live without a nurse to suckle it; neither can a person be saved without the protection of Mary." And St. Germanus exclaims: "No one, O most holy Mary, can know God but through you. No one can be saved or redeemed but through you, O Mother of God. No one obtains mercy but through you, O full of all grace! . . ."Human beings cannot be free from the effects of the concupiscence of the flesh, unless you open the way for them . . . Then what will become of us if you abandon us, O Life of Christians?"

But, a certain author objects, if all graces come through Mary, then when we ask the intercession of other Saints, they have to have recourse to the mediation of Mary. But no one, he argues, has ever believed or dreamed of such a thing. As to believing it, I answer that there is no problem at all. What difficulty can there be in believing that God, to honor His Mother, after making her Queen of all Saints and wishing to have all graces pass through her hands, should also will that the Saints come to her to obtain favors for their clients?  Take, for one example, what Suarez says: " Among the Saints, we do not make use of one to intercede with the other, because they are all of the same order. But we do ask them to intercede with Mary, because she is their Sovereign and Queen. Or consider St. Bonaventure: "Whenever the Most Blessed Virgin goes to God to intercede for us, she commands all the angels and Saints to accompany her because she is their Queen, and to unite their prayers to hers."And as to saying that no one ever dreamed of such a thing, I find that St. Bernard, St. Anselm, St. Bonaventure, Suarez, and others expressly teach this doctrine.
 

Luther said that he "could not endure the thought that the Church of Rome should call Mary, who is only a creature, 'our hope,' for God alone [he said], and Jesus Christ as our Mediator, is our hope." But the Church does teach us to invoke Mary on all occasions and call her our hope: "Hail, our hope!"

Certainly God is the only source and dispenser of every good, and the creature without God is nothing, and can give nothing.  But if our Lord has so arranged matters --- as we have already shown --- that all graces pass through Mary as through a channel of mercy, we not only can but must maintain that she, through whose means we receive God's graces, is truly our hope.

Listen to what the Saints say. My children, she is my greatest confidence and the whole foundation of my hope! (St. Bernard) O Lady, with all my heart I have placed my hope in you and, with my eyes fixed on you, I look for my salvation from you! (St. John Damascene)  Mary is the whole hope of our salvation. (St. Thomas) O most holy Virgin, receive us under your protection, for we have no hope of salvation but through your means! (St. Ephrem) This is the will of God, that we should receive every good thing from her hand, says St. Bernard. Therefore he advises us to recommend ourselves to Mary whenever we look for any favor, and then we are bound to receive it by her means.

Though you yourself do not deserve the favor from God (he says), Mary is deserving of it. "Because you were unworthy of the gift, it was given to Mary, that through her you might receive whatever you have . . . And whatever you offer to God, make sure to commend it to Mary, unless you wish to be refused."

 

 

Prayers

Litany of the Holy Ghost

Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

[Dawn Marie]

Or consider St. Bonaventure: "Whenever the Most Blessed Virgin goes to God to intercede for us, she commands all the angels and Saints to accompany her because she is their Queen, and to unite their prayers to hers."And as to saying that no one ever dreamed of such a thing, I find that St. Bernard, St. Anselm, St. Bonaventure, Suarez, and others expressly teach this doctrine.