PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 26

PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 26

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. 12-38

"If you wish to understand the Mother," says a saint, "then understand the Son. She is a worthy Mother of God." Hic taceat omnis lingua : Here let every tongue be silent. My heart has dictated with special joy all that I have written to show that Mary has been unknown up till now and that that is one of the reasons why Jesus Christ is not known as he should be. If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come into the world; it can only be as a necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary. She who first gave him to the world will establish his kingdom in the world.

With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, "I am he who is". Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and the manifestation of his glory. To do all things he has only to will them. However, I declare that, considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting.

Mary is the Queen of heaven and earth by grace as Jesus is king by nature and by conquest. But as the kingdom of Jesus Christ exists primarily in the heart or interior of man, according to the words of the Gospel, "The kingdom of God is within you", so the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is principally in the interior of man, that is, in his soul. It is principally in souls that she is glorified with her Son more than in any visible creature. So we may call her, as the saints do, Queen of our hearts.

Meditation: 1

Uniformity with God's Will

Liguori, St. Alphonsus de (1696-1787)

Spiritual Desolation.

We ought to view in the light of God's holy will, the loss of persons

who are helpful to us in a spiritual or material way. Pious souls often

fail in this respect by not being resigned to the dispositions of God's

holy will. Our sanctification comes fundamentally and essentially from

God, not from spiritual directors. When God sends us a spiritual

director, he wishes us to use him for our spiritual profit; but if he

takes him away, he wants us to remain calm and unperturbed and to

increase our confidence in his goodness by saying to him: "Lord, thou

hast given me this help and now thou dost take it away. Blessed be thy

holy will! I beg thee, teach me what I must do to serve thee."

In this manner too, we should receive whatever other crosses God sends

us. "But," you reply, "these sufferings are really punishments." The

answer to that remark is: Are not the punishments God sends us in this

life also graces and benefits? Our offenses against God must be atoned

for somehow, either in this life or in the next. Hence we should all

make St. Augustine's prayer our own: "Lord, here cut, here burn and

spare me not, but spare me in eternity!" Let us say with Job: "Let this

be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, he spare not [67] ."

Having merited hell for our sins, we should be consoled that God

chastises us in this life, and animate ourselves to look upon such

treatment as a pledge that God wishes to spare us in the next. When God

sends us punishments let us say with the high-priest Heli: "It is the

Lord, let him do what is good in his sight [68] ."

The time of spiritual desolation is also a time for being resigned.

When a soul begins to cultivate the spiritual life, God usually showers

his consolations upon her to wean her away from the world; but when he

sees her making solid progress, he withdraws his hand to test her and

to see if she will love and serve him without the reward of sensible

consolations. "In this life," as St. Teresa used to say, "our lot is

not to enjoy God, but to do his holy will." And again, "Love of God

does not consist in experiencing his tendernesses, but in serving him

with resolution and humility." And in yet another place, "God's true

lovers are discovered in times of aridity and temptation."

Let the soul thank God when she experiences his loving endearments, but

let her not repine when she finds herself left in desolation. It is

important to lay great stress on this point, because some souls,

beginners in the spiritual life, finding themselves in spiritual

aridity, think God has abandoned them, or that the spiritual life is

not for them; thus they give up the practice of prayer and lose what

they have previously gained. The time of aridity is the best time to

practice resignation to God's holy will. I do not say you will feel no

pain in seeing yourself deprived of the sensible presence of God; it is

impossible for the soul not to feel it and lament over it, when even

our Lord cried out on the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou

forsaken me [69] ?" In her sufferings, however, the soul should always

be resigned to God's will.

Reflection:

Taken from “The Glories of Mary”

By Saint Alphonsus de Liguori

Pgs. 60-61

OH, how much this our good mother exceeds all her children in affection, even if they love her to the extent of their power! “Mary is always more loving than her lovers” says St. Ignatius, martyr.* Let us love her as much as St. Stanislaus Kostka, who loved this his dear mother so tenderly, that when he spoke of her, everyone who heard him desired to love her also; He invented new titles by which he honored her name; he never commenced an action without first turning to her image and asking her blessing; when he recited her office, her rosary, and other prayers, he repeated them with such affectionate earnestness, that he seemed speaking face to face with Mary; when he heard the Salve Regina sung, his soul and even his countenance was all on fire; when asked one day by a father of the society, as they were going together to visit an altar of the blessed Virgin, how much he loved her,” Father”, he answered, “what can I say more than she is my mother “? And that father tells us how the holy youth spoke these words with such tender emotion of voice, countenance, and heart, that he appeared not a man, but an angel discoursing the love of Mary.

Let us love her as much as blessed Hermann, who called her his beloved spouse, whilst he

also was honored by Mary with the same name. As much as St. Philip Neri, who felt wholly

consoled in merely thinking of Mary, and on this account named her his delight. As much as

St. Bonaveiiture, who not only called her his lady and mother, but, to show the tender

affection he bore her, went so far as to call her his heart and his soul: “Hail, lady, my mother; yea, my heart, my soul” * Let us love her as much as her great lover St. Bernard, who loved his sweet mother so much, that he called her “the ravisher of hearts”. Of whence the saint, in order to express to her the ardent love he bore her, said to her, “Hast thou not stolen my heart”?

Let us name her our beloved mistress, as St. Bernardine of Sienna named her, who went

every day to visit her before her sacred image, in order to declare his love in the tender

colloquies he held with his queen. When he was asked where he went every day, he answered

that he went to find his beloved. Let them love her as much as St. Louis of Gonzaga, who

burned continually with so great love of Mary, that as soon as he heard the sound of the sweet

name of his dear mother, his heart kindled, and a flame perceptible to all, lighted up his

countenance. Let us love her like St. Francis Solano, who, distracted by a holy passion for Mary, sometimes went with a musical instrument to sing of love before her altar, saying that, like earthly lovers, he was serenading his beloved Queen.