PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 25

PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 25

Prayers for the Preparatory Period (Days 1-33) to be said daily.

To see the prayers in their entirety click the links below...

From 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: Uniformity with God's Will

Liguori, St. Alphonsus de (1696-1787)

Special Practices of Uniformity.

Let us now take up in a practical way the consideration of those

matters in which we should unite ourselves to God's will.

1. In external matters. In times of great heat, cold or rain; in times

of famine, epidemics and similar occasions we should refrain from

expressions like these: "What unbearable heat!" "What piercing cold!"

"What a tragedy!" In these instances we should avoid expressions

indicating opposition to God's will. We should want things to be just

as they are, because it is God who thus disposes them. An incident in

point would be this one: Late one night St. Francis Borgia arrived

unexpectedly at a Jesuit house, in a snowstorm. He knocked and knocked

on the door, but all to no purpose because the community being asleep,

no one heard him. When morning came all were embarrassed for the

discomfort he had experienced by having had to spend the night in the

open. The saint, however, said he had enjoyed the greatest consolation

during those long hours of the night by imagining that he saw our Lord

up in the sky dropping the snowflakes down upon him.

2. In personal matters. In matters that affect us personally, let us

acquiesce in God's will. For example, in hunger, thirst, poverty,

desolation, loss of reputation, let us always say: "Do thou build up or

tear down, O Lord, as seems good in thy sight. I am content. I wish

only what thou dost wish." Thus too, says Rodriguez, should we act when

the devil proposes certain hypothetical cases to us in order to wrest a

sinful consent from us, or at least to cause us to be interiorly

disturbed. For example: "What would you say or what would you do if

some one were to say or do such and such a thing to you?" Let us

dismiss the temptation by saying: "By God's grace, I would say or do

what God would want me to say or do." Thus we shall free ourselves from

imperfection and harassment.

3. Let us not lament if we suffer from some natural defect of body or

mind; from poor memory, slowness of understanding, little ability,

lameness or general bad health. What claim have we, or what obligation

is God under, to give us a more brilliant mind or a more robust body?

Who is ever offered a gift and then lays down the conditions upon which

he will accept it? Let us thank God for what, in his pure goodness, he

has given us and let us be content too with the manner in which he has

given it to us.

Who knows? Perhaps if God had given us greater talent, better health, a

more personable appearance, we might have lost our souls! Great talent

and knowledge have caused many to be puffed up with the idea of their

own importance and, in their pride, they have despised others. How

easily those who have these gifts fall into grave danger to their

salvation! How many on account of physical beauty or robust health have

plunged headlong into a life of debauchery! How many, on the contrary,

who, by reason of poverty, infirmity or physical deformity, have become

saints and have saved their souls, who, given health, wealth or

physical attractiveness had else lost their souls! Let us then be

content with what God has given us. "But one thing is necessary [62] ,"

and it is not beauty, not health, not talent. It is the salvation of

our immortal souls.

4. It is especially necessary that we be resigned in corporal

infirmities. We should willingly embrace them in the manner and for the

length of time that God wills. We ought to make use of the ordinary

remedies in time of sickness-- such is God's will; but if they are not

effective, let us unite ourselves to God's will and this will be better

for us than would be our restoration to health. Let us say: "Lord, I

wish neither to be well nor to remain sick; I want only what thou

wilt." Certainly, it is more virtuous not to repine in times of painful

illness; still and all, when our sufferings are excessive, it is not

wrong to let our friends know what we are enduring, and also to ask God

to free us from our sufferings. Let it be understood, however, that the

sufferings here referred to are actually excessive. It often happens

that some, on the occasion of a slight illness, or even a slight

indisposition, want the whole world to stand still and sympathize with

them in their illnesses.

But where it is a case of real suffering, we have the example of our

Lord, who, at the approach of his bitter passion, made known his state

of soul to his disciples, saying: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death

[63] " and besought his eternal Father to deliver him from it: "Father,

if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me [64] ." But our Lord

likewise taught us what we should do when we have made such a petition,

when he added: "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt [65] ."

How childish the pretense of those who protest they wish for health not

to escape suffering, but to serve our Lord better by being able to

observe their Rule, to serve the community, go to church, receive

Communion, do penance, study, work for souls in the confessional and

pulpit! Devout soul, tell me, why do you desire to do these things? To

please God? Why then search any further to please God when you are sure

God does not wish these prayers, Communions, penances or studies, but

he does wish that you suffer patiently this sickness he sends you?

Unite then your sufferings to those of our Lord.

"But," you say, "I do not want to be sick for then I am useless, a

burden to my Order, to my monastery." But if you are united to and

resigned to God's will, you will realize that your superiors are

likewise resigned to the dispositions of divine providence, and that

they recognize the fact that you are a burden, not through indolence,

but by the will of God. Ah, how often these desires and these laments

are born, not of the love of God, but of the love of self! How many of

them are so many pretexts for fleeing the will of God! Do we want to

please God? When we find ourselves confined to our sickbed, let us

utter this one prayer: "Thy will be done." Let us repeat it time and

time again and it will please God more than all our mortifications and

devotions. There is no better way to serve God than cheerfully to

embrace his holy will.

St. John of Avila once wrote to a sick priest: "My dear friend,--Do not

weary yourself planning what you would do if you were well, but be

content to be sick for as long as God wishes. If you are seeking to

carry out God's will, what difference should it make to you whether you

are sick or well [66] ?" The saint was perfectly right, for God is

glorified not by our works, but by our resignation to, and by our union

with, his holy will. In this respect St. Francis de Sales used to say

we serve God better by our sufferings than by our actions.

Many times it will happen that proper medical attention or effective

remedies will be lacking, or even that the doctor will not rightly

diagnose our case. In such instances we must unite ourselves to the

divine will which thus disposes of our physical health. The story is

told of a client of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who being sick, went to

the saint's tomb to obtain a cure. He returned home cured. But then he

thought to himself: "Suppose it would be better for my soul's salvation

if I remained sick, what point then is there in being well?" In this

frame of mind he went back and asked the saint to intercede with God

that he grant what would be best for his eternal salvation. His illness

returned and he was perfectly content with the turn things had taken,

being fully persuaded that God had thus disposed of him for his own

good.

Reflection:

In Conclusion

Pure Heart of Mary

By Saint Alphonsus de Liguori

O sorrowful Mother, if You had loved Your Son less, or if He had been less lovable or had loved You less, Your sufferings would certainly not have been so great when You offered Him to death. But there never was, and never will be, a mother who loved her son more than you did. And there never was, and never will be, a son more lovable, or one who loved his mother more than Jesus did. O God, had we beheld the beauty, the majesty of the face of that Divine Child, would we ever have had the courage to sacrifice His life for our salvation? And yet You, O Mary, although you were His Mother and loved Him with such a tender love, had the courage to offer Him for the salvation of mankind, to a death more cruel and painful than any criminal ever suffered on earth!

How sad a scene must love have placed before the eyes of the Blessed Virgin from that day on, a scene in which all the outrages and mockeries which Her poor Son was to endure were delineated. See how love already represents Him agonized with sorrow in the garden, torn with scourges, crowned with thorns in the praetorium, and finally hanging on a Cross of shame on Calvary! "See, O Mother," says love, "what an amiable and innocent Son You are offering to such terrible tortures and to such a horrible death!" And what is the use of trying to save Him from the hands of Herod when you are only destining Him for a far more sorrowful fate?

Mary not only offered Jesus to death in the Temple, but she renewed that offering every moment of her life. She revealed to St. Bridget: "That sorrow [foretold by the holy Simeon] never left my heart until I was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven." Therefore St. Anselm addresses her in these words: "O compassionate Mother, I cannot believe that you could have endured such excruciating torments even for a moment without dying, unless God Himself, the Spirit of Life, had sustained You." But St. Bernard, in speaking of the great sorrow which Mary experienced on this day, says that from this time on "She endured a living death, bearing a sorrow more cruel than death." Every moment that she lived She died, for She was assailed at every moment by sorrow for the coming death of Her Jesus, a torment more cruel than any death.

Because of the immense merit she acquired for the salvation of the world by this great sacrifice to God, St. Augustine was quite right in calling the Blessed Mother the "repairer of the human race." And St. Epiphanius, "the redeemer of captives;" St. Germanus, "our deliverer from all calamities;" St. Ambrose, "the mother of all the faithful;" St. Augustine, "the mother of the living;" St. Andrew of Crete, "the mother of life."

Arnold of Chartres says: "The will of Mary and the will of Christ were then united so intimately that both offered up the same sacrifice. Because of that union of wills, Mary brought about with Christ that one effect, namely, the salvation of the world." Jesus accomplished it by making satisfaction for our sins; Mary by obtaining the application of this satisfaction to us . . .

Mary then, by the merit of her sorrows and by sacrificing Her Son, became the Mother of all the redeemed and it is only right to believe that it is through Her hands that the milk of Divine grace, the fruit of Christ's merits and the means for obtaining eternal life are given to men. St. Bernard refers to this when he says: "When God was about to redeem the human race, He deposited the whole price in Mary's hands." By this he meant that the merits of the Redeemer are applied to our souls through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, for the graces which are the fruit of the merits of Jesus Christ are dispensed by her hands.

If God was so pleased by the sacrifice of his son Isaac which Abraham was to make to the Divine Majesty that He promised to multiply Abraham's descendants as the stars of the heavens------Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of Heaven [Gen. 22: 16-17]------ we must surely believe that the far nobler sacrifice of Her Son Jesus which Mary made was immeasurably more acceptable to God. And as a result, He has granted that by her prayers the number of the elect should be increased. That is, the number of souls coming to Heaven through her shall be great.

God promised St. Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the birth of the Messias: And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord [Lk. 2: 26]. But it was only through Mary that he received this grace, for it was in Her arms that he found the Savior. So we may say that anyone who wants to find Jesus will find Him only through Mary. Let us therefore go to this holy Mother if we wish to find Jesus, and let us go with great confidence.

Mary told her servant Pudenziana Zagnoni that every year on the feast of Her Purification [February 2] some sinner would receive a great grace.

Who knows but that you or I may be the favored sinner this day? Our sins may be great but the power of Mary is still greater. "The Son can deny nothing to His Mother," says St. Bernard. If Jesus is angry with us, Mary will immediately placate Him. Plutarch reports that Antipater wrote a long letter to Alexander the Great denouncing Alexander's mother, Olympia. After reading the letter, Alexander observed: "Antipater does not know that a single tear of my mother is enough to cancel six hundred letters of denunciation." We may also imagine Jesus giving the same answer to any denunciations made against us by the devil when we have Mary praying for us: "Does Lucifer not know that a prayer of My Mother in favor of a sinner is enough to make me forget all the accusations against him?"

Footnotes:

(1) Scholars have been unable to locate a text corresponding to this in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

(2) This title of "priest' was also given to Mary in a prayer composed at the direction of Pope St. Pius X and approved by him on May 9, 1906.

(3) St. Teresa probably received this revelation in the Convent of the Incarnation in 1572.

Note: This article was taken from The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus de Liguori.

PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 25

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