Get It

I haven’t updated this blog in over six years, so probably no one is going to read this post, since all my former readers gave up on me a long time ago. But you may have accidentally stumbled upon it. So in order to minister to the needs of accidental stumblers, I think it is important to say a little about something I have recently (re-) discovered. (By the way, don’t get your hopes up about this blog. I will likely not be updating it very often, if at all, though only God knows…)

In our monastery we have two periods of Eucharistic Adoration in common each day, which we do in addition to Lauds and Vespers. We also have daily private vigils, in which one is free to engage in this divine exercise still more. I am originally from the Byzantine tradition, wherein Eucharistic Adoration, Exposition, and Benediction are not practiced, for reasons I needn’t explain at this time. So for many years I did not experience the benefit of it, nor was there any reason or opportunity to integrate it into my own spiritual life and practice. But now it is not only possible but required in common and strongly encouraged in private. And lately—since I have committed myself to daily Eucharistic vigils not long ago—I have been reaping the fruit of it. I have received many insights into Scripture and the working of the Holy Spirit in my own soul and life, and how the Lord is leading me into a more profound spiritual life, fruitful prayer and ministry. Just remaining in the radiance of the Uncreated Light invisibly flowing from the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is enough to open my heart to receive whatever He wishes to communicate or grant to me.

So there are two things I would recommend that you “get,” as the title of this post indicates. One is to “get it” about the importance, need, value, and spiritual fruitfulness of Eucharistic Adoration. Our Lord Jesus Christ waits for us in the tabernacles of this world, desiring to pour out His grace, mercy, love, and light into the hearts of those who recognize the Gift and return to give thanks, as did the cleansed Samaritan leper (Lk. 17: 15-16). You may be pleasantly surprised to see how your life gradually but noticeably is taken more deeply into the light and life of Our Lord, and therefore how He is more easily able not only to transform your soul but also to make all other things work for the good in your life.

The other thing I recommend that you get is a book entitled In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart—The Journal of a Priest at Prayer, by A Benedictine Monk. Everyone knows that this priest-monk is Fr Mark Daniel Kirby, the Prior at Silverstream Priory in Ireland. (To learn about his monastery and their life, go to https://www.cenacleosb.org/) It is a book of locutions from Jesus, who spoke to Fr Kirby through the Blessed Sacrament, encouraging the practice of Eucharistic Adoration and calling him to a special vocation of adoration and of reparation, especially for priests, so that the Catholic priesthood might be renewed and transformed—precisely through the rediscovery and fervent, frequent practice of adoring Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Here is one excerpt from the book, which is really a marvelous and detailed presentation of a profound Eucharistic spirituality and theology, meant to reach the heart:

Believe in My love for you… I have chosen you to be an intimate friend of My Heart… Trust in Me, and in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within you… Let Me do My work in your soul and in this place that I have chosen for you… I will renew souls in the radiance of My Eucharistic Face, and I will draw them into the silent sanctuary of My Heart. There they will know the love of My Father and the sweet fire of the Holy Ghost. Here, too, souls will come to experience the maternal care of My Mother’s Immaculate Heart…

“Adoration continues the priestly action that is Mine in the Mass, and engages you in it. Adore, then, and all shall be well. This is My promise to you… I am pleased and comforted and glorified by your simply being with Me. Be present in My presence. This is what I ask of you…

“Nothing you have done can keep My Heart from loving you… Give Me your heart’s friendship and affection… Cultivate this adoring adhesion to My sacramental presence… integrate My Eucharistic presence into every detail of your life… I will draw you more intimately into the grace of My divine friendship… As a result, you will grow in holiness, and souls will benefit from your new-found intimacy with My Eucharistic Heart.”

Get it!

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 23)

Appendix C:  A Theological Reflection

            The following rather lengthy excerpt is from a book by Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP, entitled: The Mysteries of Mary: Growing in Faith, Hope, and Love with the Mother of God.  I include it here because it touches on some points I mentioned in this little book, though from a more strictly theological perspective.  Personally, I find it quite beautiful, and it has helped me a lot in understanding and deepening my own relationship with Our Lady.  So if that appeals to you, I think you will benefit from this.  (In this excerpt, I have capitalized “Heart,” for both Jesus and Mary, in order to bring it in keeping with my usage throughout this book.  It is only fitting!)

            “[Mary] is eternally the Mother of the members of Christ: Mother of their divine life, a mother who never ceases to beget them to this divine life; a mother who never ceases to watch over them, carry them, feed them, sustain them, educate them and direct them toward the Heart of Jesus and toward the Father while teaching them to be completely docile to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

            “With a perfect knowledge of our souls—a knowledge she has received from Christ, since all the secrets of our hearts are revealed to her—she gives and communicates to us this divine life as adopted sons of the Father (adopted yet real) and as members of Jesus.  She knows us and calls us by our name; she has received this knowledge from the Good Shepherd Himself.

            “This knowledge is a practical, loving, and efficacious knowledge.  It is a mother’s knowledge concerning her children, one which binds the mother’s heart and intelligence to her children’s heart and intelligence.  We have here as it were a very intimate communication of life, within a loving knowledge.  Mary, as mother, is completely given to our souls, through Christ and the Father.  And it is in this very gift that she is Mother and that she begets us.  This gift has a maternal modality that cannot be separated from the gift we are given by Christ and the entire Holy Trinity.  She can give herself as Mother to our souls, giving birth to divine life in us, only through the will of the Son and of the Father, under the shadow of the Holy Spirit.

“In His wisdom, God willed to fully establish Mary as Mother of His Son so that she might fully be Mother of His members, in order that she might eternally play this role as Mother of our divine life.  That is why the gift of this divine life which she gives to her children is realized in this particular modality of maternity.  She is the vital milieu where their divine life can blossom.  She is the one who carries and envelops their Christian life, who disposes their souls to the action of the Holy Spirit and who, in a very intimate and delicate way, completes in them this action of the Holy Spirit so that God’s graces may be completely efficacious.

            “This helps us to understand the manner in which she is present to each of her children in the intimacy of their divine life, their Christian life.  It helps us to understand how there is a kind of special mode to our grace that connaturalizes us with Mary’s grace and spontaneously inclines us toward her and enables us to live in unison with her divine life.  It is in this sense that we must clearly understand that her motherhood for those still on earth is on another level, beyond, as it were, the instrumental action of the sacraments.

            “We should point out that for those who are still living on earth, Mary’s presence in the intimacy of their divine life is a supernatural presence that remains hidden and veiled and is the source of our highest aspirations and our most ardent desires.  Although hidden, this presence is efficacious and real; it is the presence of someone who maternally acts in us, who gives us God’s life and who never ceases to prepare us and make us docile to the motion of the Holy Spirit.

            “Of course, the Holy Spirit can give us the divine experience of Mary’s motherhood of choice and preference with respect to our souls.   He can make us consciously live from this invisible and maternal presence of Mary in the intimacy of our divine life.  He can teach us to say “Mother” while looking at Mary, just as He teaches us to say “Father” while looking at our Creator.  He can unveil for us and help us experience the unfathomable depths of this motherhood; He can lead us to understand the divine quality of her love.  At the Cross, Mary accepted separation from Jesus in order to become the Mother of John’s divine life.  Jesus asked her for this sacrifice so that she might become our Mother, and Mary accepted it with love.  Thus she preferred the divine life of her son John to the joy of her Son’s physical presence, to her Son’s earthly life.  This choice is eternal.  It is with this ‘quality’ of love that we are loved.

            “The Holy Spirit can bury us and experimentally hide us in the depths of the maternal mercy of Mary’s Heart and ask that we remain there, as though in seclusion, like a little child in sinu Mariae [in the bosom of Mary].  The Holy Spirit can ask us to choose her as a Mother in a very special way, with a choice that seeks to match the divine quality of her own choice.  He can require from us an attitude similar to John’s: to choose her as a Mother in order to obey an imperative order from Christ, in order to obey his last will and take her ‘into our home,’ intimately into our life, as he did, to live exclusively with and by her.  It is a divine dwelling that is very hidden, very solitary, and very silent in which the Holy Spirit can establish us.  We have here a very special covenant of love between our hearts and Mary’s Heart.  Each one of us lives in this covenant, but we are not all divinely aware of it.

            “Moreover, Mary cooperates in Christ’s governance upon us, a governance that consists in directing us toward the Father, in leading us through love toward the paternal home.  This governance, which comes from God’s wisdom, is both forceful and gentle, fortiter et suaviter. Mary’s maternal rule over us primarily concerns the blossoming of our Christian life, the perfection of our life of faith, hope, and love.  Mary always hastens the Hour of Christ, as at Cana… She acts ‘forcefully,’ demanding a great deal from us, like a loving mother who has great ambitions for her sons whom she loves so much.  But she acts gently, with infinite delicacy, from within, so to speak, as though we were acting on our own.  She steps aside to leave room for our own initiatives.  She is present in our life of silent prayer to help us live more divinely in Him…

            “This governance especially intervenes in the realm of our human imagination, our memories, our ‘psychological selves.’  This is in fact where most of the battles and struggles are fought, where the majority of temptations occur.  Mary pacifies, calms, simplifies, gets rid of our psychological complexes; she unties them with her maternal and delicate love.  She also acts in our sensibilities and in our physical strength, enveloping everything in her maternal grace.

            “Thanks to this action of maternal mercy, her presence, which is realized first of all in the depths of our divine life at its very source, can take hold of our entire human, imaginative, intellectual, affective and sensitive life, according to God’s gracious will.  This maternal action can take hold of everything.  Since Mary possesses her glorious body in heaven, her maternal action can even include more extraordinary modalities: with more sensible or imaginative forms; as also happens for the presence of Christ’s glorious body with respect to His members who are still here on earth.  Mary can visibly appear to her children exiled on earth to comfort them, encourage them and to remind them of the demands of their Christian life…

            “In heaven, for the elect, Mary’s presence is lived in full light, and all its potentials are made perfectly explicit.  Mary still performs this merciful yet forceful maternal role with respect to the elect.  She illuminates each of the elect and gives herself to each one in particular.

            “With respect to the angels, she exercises a queenship and not an intimate motherhood.  She enlightens and illuminates them, but does not give herself to them as a mother.  Thus her children enjoy an intimacy with her that the angels cannot enjoy.”

            Finally, a passage quoted in the same book, from The Mystery of Mary, by Fr. Rogatien Bernard, OP: “[Mary’s] noblest activity is evidently to see God and to love Him.  Now the Blessed Virgin is so essentially a Mother that she cannot help seeing all her children in God and loving them in Him.  This is her spiritual maternity in its highest aspect, for here we see a creature who has the privilege of seeing those whom she brings forth the way God sees them, and of carrying them constantly in her eternal Heart the way God Himself carries them.  It would be impossible to conceive anything greater in her activity or more profitable for us than this tender gaze in which she enfolds us and with which she penetrates us.”

THE  END

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 22)

Appendix A:  Papal Testimonies to St Louis de Montfort’s Marian Teachings

Some people think that the teachings concerning total consecration to Mary and the whole “Marian life” as recommended by St Louis de Montfort are somewhat exaggerated, especially those who seem to have lost their understanding and appreciation of the Catholic Church’s Tradition.  The six Vicars of Christ listed below, however, would disagree.  The following information is quoted from 33 Days to Morning Glory, by Fr Michael E. Gaitley, MIC.

Blessed Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) stated that St. Louis’s devotion to Mary is the best and most acceptable form.

Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) not only beatified de Montfort in 1888 but granted a Church indulgence to Catholics who consecrate themselves to Mary using de Montfort’s formula.  Moreover, this Pope was reportedly so influenced by St. Louis’s efforts to spread the Rosary that he wrote 11 encyclicals on this preeminent Marian devotion.

Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), like Leo XIII, also recommended de Montfort’s teaching on Mary to the faithful.  In fact, he granted a plenary indulgence in perpetuum (in perpetuity) to anyone who would pray de Montfort’s formula for Marian consecration, and he offered his own apostolic blessing to anyone who would simply read True Devotion.  This Pope so strongly encouraged the faithful to follow de Montfort’s path of Marian devotion because he himself had experienced its power.  In fact, in his Marian encyclical Ad Diem Illum, the saintly Pope expressed his own dependence on de Montfort in writing it, which becomes obvious when one compares it with True Devotion.  The Pope’s encyclical continually reflects the tone and spirit of de Montfort’s classic work as evidenced by sentences like this: “There is no surer or easier way than Mary in uniting all men with Christ.”

Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) simply stated, “I have practiced this devotion ever since my youth.”

Venerable Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) canonized St Louis in 1947 and, in his homily for the Mass of canonization, referred to de Montfort’s Marian teaching as “solid and right.” Then, when the Pope addressed the pilgrims who had come for the canonization, he said that de Montfort leads us to Mary and from Mary, to Jesus, thus summarizing the meaning of Marian consecration.

Blessed Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) promoted de Montfort’s teaching more than any other Pope… It’s enough here to recall two amazing facts: First, that John Paul’s papal motto was Totus Tuus (“totally yours”), which he took directly from de Montfort’s shorter prayer of consecration; second, that John Paul described his reading of True Devotion to Mary as a “decisive turning point” in his life.

Appendix B: Consecration Prayers

The following are several prayers that are often used to consecrate oneself to Our Lady.  Use whatever form speaks to your heart.  Let the consecration prayer be whatever you can say with reasonable guarantee of fidelity to what you are offering to Mary, and to Our Lord through her.

From St Louis de Montfort:

O Eternal and incarnate Wisdom!  O sweetest and most adorable Jesus!  True God and true man, only Son of the Eternal Father, and of Mary, always virgin!  I adore You profoundly in the bosom and splendors of Your Father during eternity; and I adore You also in the virginal bosom of Mary, Your most worthy Mother, in the time of Your incarnation.

I give You thanks that You have emptied Yourself, taking the form of a slave in order to rescue me from the cruel slavery of the devil.  I praise and glorify You that You have been pleased to submit Yourself to Mary, Your holy Mother, in all things, in order to make me Your faithful slave through her.  But, alas!  Ungrateful and faithless as I have been, I have not kept the promises which I made so solemnly to You in my Baptism; I have not fulfilled my obligations; I do not deserve to be called Your child, nor yet Your slave; and as there is nothing in me which does not merit Your anger and Your repulse, I dare not come by myself before Your most holy and august Majesty.  It is on this account that I have recourse to the intercession of Your most holy Mother, whom You have given me for a mediatrix with You.  It is through her that I hope to obtain of You contrition, the pardon of my sins, and the acquisition and preservation of wisdom.

Hail, then, O immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be hidden and to be adored by angels and by men!  Hail, O Queen of heaven and earth, to whose empire everything is subject which is under God!  Hail, O sure refuge of sinners, whose mercy fails no one!  Hear the desires which I have of the Divine Wisdom; and for that end receive the vows and offerings which in my lowliness I present to you.

I, _____, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in your hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.  In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose you this day for my Mother and Mistress.  I deliver and consecrate to you, as your slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to you the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to your good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.

Receive, O most kind Virgin, this little offering of my slavery, in honor of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to your maternity; in homage to the power which both of you have over this poor sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity has favored you.  I declare that I wish henceforth, as your true slave, to seek your honor and to obey you in all things.

O admirable Mother, present me to your dear Son as His eternal slave, so that as He has redeemed me by you, by you He may receive me!  O Mother of mercy, grant me the grace to obtain the true Wisdom of God; and for that end receive me among those whom you love and teach, whom you lead, nourish and protect as your children and your slaves.

O faithful Virgin, make me in all things so perfect a disciple, imitator and slave of the Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ your Son, that I may attain, by your intercession and by your example, to the fullness of His age on earth and of His glory in Heaven. Amen.

From St Maximilian Kolbe:

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, ________, a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: “She will crush your head,” and, “You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world.” Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for intro­ducing and increasing your glory to the maxi­mum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holi­ness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise you, O Holy Virgin.

R. Give me strength against your enemies.

Daily Renewal of St Maximilian’s Consecration:

Immaculata, Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world.  To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and sacrifices for this day.

Another consecration prayer:

O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy,
Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners,
we consecrate ourselves to thine Immaculate Heart.

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life;
all that we have, all that we love, all that we are.

To thee we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls;
to thee we give our homes, our families, our country.

We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee,
and may share in the benefits of thy motherly benediction.

And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting,
we renew this day at thy feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion.

We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths of our holy Faith, and to live as befits Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions
of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him.

We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church,
in particular to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion,
and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able so to do.

Finally, we promise thee, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of men,
to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to the service of thy blessed veneration,
in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of thine Immaculate Heart,
the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of thine adorable Son,
in our own hearts and in those of all men, in our country and in all the world,
as in heaven, so on earth.  Amen.

Another one:

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and tender Mother of men, in accordance with Thy ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate to Thy Immaculate Heart myself, my brethren, my country and the whole human race.

Reign over us, Most Holy Mother of God, and teach us how to make the Heart of Thy Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, reign and triumph in us even as It has reigned and triumphed in Thee.

Reign over us, Most Blessed Virgin, that we may be Thine in prosperity and in adversity, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in life and in death.

O most compassionate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven, watch over our minds and hearts and preserve them from the impurity which Thou didst lament so sorrowfully at Fatima.  Assist us in imitating You in all things, especially purity.  Help us to call down upon our country and upon the whole world the peace of God in justice and charity.

Therefore, Most Gracious Virgin and Mother, I hereby promise to imitate Thy virtues
by the practice of a true Christian life without regard to human respect.  I resolve to receive Holy Communion regularly and to offer to Thee five decades of the Rosary each day, together with my sacrifices, in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.

This one can be done very easily every day:

O Mary, my Queen! my Mother! I give thee all myself, and, to show my devotion to thee, I consecrate to thee my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self.  Wherefore, O loving Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, defend me, as thy property and possession.  Amen.

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 21)

Epilogue: The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart

            There has been some controversy over precisely what Our Lady meant when she said,  “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”  But I’m not interested in controversy, only in uniting myself to that loving Heart so as to be with her when her triumph is definitively manifested.  We have to understand her triumph in a personal way as well as in a way that affects the whole world.  I’d like reproduce here a few paragraphs from in my book, A Place Prepared by God.  This passage begins with reflections by Mother Adela, SCTJM, whom I quoted earlier. She emphasizes the spiritual nature of the great struggles of our times. In the last paragraph I conclude in my own words with what it means that Our Lady’s Heart triumphs in our own hearts.

“How much indifference and rejection there is towards Our Mother and Her interventions!  How much rejection of Her mission, Her intercession, and the doctrinal truths about Her.  How much resistance there is in giving Her that place the Trinity gave to Her and in recognizing it publicly… Behind every rejection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whether it is strong or subtle, we can find the instigation and the attack of satan.  ‘I will place enmity between you and the Woman.’  And all of this resistance is so grave that Jesus considers it necessary that acts of reparation be made for them…

“Because sin is the root of the battle, our Mother calls us with urgency to authentic conversion and to renunciation of the sin, indifference, doubt, and rebellion found in man today.  As a good Mother, She battles in this decisive hour for humanity—an hour in which eternal salvation is at stake in so many souls, including our own…

“The Holy Father [John Paul II] has called this battle the ‘culture of death’ that includes the general loss of faith, the loss of many souls, wars, destruction, abortion, rebellion, euthanasia, violence, etc.  However… the worst death is that of the soul that loses its faith, falls away from God, His love, and His commandments, and is lost in a life of sin, running the risk of eternal condemnation and eternal death.

“In Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary left us a promise: ‘In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’  If She speaks of triumph, this implies that there is a battle that needs to be fought.  The instrument of this victory will be the Immaculate Heart.

“The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is something that will ultimately be realized on a global level, but it begins in individual hearts.  At a certain stage or moment in your relationship with Our Lady, if you have consecrated yourself to her and are earnestly striving to live accordingly, you will become aware that the triumph of her Heart has in fact occurred in yours.  You will have the sense of belonging to her, of having entered a new level of devotion, of having made a clean break with (at least the worst of) your former sins.  You will wish to please her in all things and will feel secure in her care and her love.  You will know that you have taken a step from which there is no turning back, and you know how right and good this is.  You have come to her and given yourself to her, and she has received you; now it is easy for her to bring you to Jesus, for your resistance to grace has been overcome.  This is the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in your heart.”

I might also add that to allow Mary to triumph in your own heart is to desire and to invite her sovereignty over your life.  A sign that her triumph is happening within you is that you want her to be your Mistress and Queen, you want to submit to her guidance and direction in all things, you want her to take your life in her hands and make of it what is pleasing to her and to Our Lord.  There is a certain sweetness and grace to this surrender to Mary.  When she is finally and permanently Queen in your heart and soul, she is free to work wonders in and through you, and your life will bear much fruit for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

Staying on the Path

            All the above should make it clear that being consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not merely a matter of making and repeating a certain formula of prayer.  It requires a change of life, striving for sanctity, trying to be aware of the presence of Our Lady and what she may be asking of us at any given time.  We have to live by the Gospel of Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church, and attend to the words from Heaven that Mary has spoken—in apparitions approved by the Church as worthy of belief.

            But how do we stay on this path to salvation, without getting sidetracked or waylaid or otherwise detained in our pursuit of holiness, our full and fruitful living of our consecration?  Something I experienced while writing this little book will perhaps give a certain general approach to making sure our behavior is always in keeping with the demands of our faith and our consecration.

            In the community where I live, there is a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, about two feet tall, on the refectory (dining room) table.  One day the carpet was being replaced, so the table had to be temporarily removed.  Since so many things were being moved around, I took Our Lady’s statue to my room to keep it safe.  I decided to spend some of my prayer time holding the statue while I prayed, and carrying it around with me to remind myself of her constant presence in my life.

            As I prayed, it occurred to me that I should always conduct myself as if I were holding Mary’s sacred image in my arms.  It’s the beginning of an examination of conscience: Would I act differently if I knew the Mother of God was right next to me all the time, as close as this statue I’m carrying?  It’s a sort of a variation on “What would Jesus do?”  Well, what would we do if we knew our heavenly Mother was very near to us in every situation, watching and embracing us?  It helps remind us of our consecration and what it means that we belong to her.

            Similarly, I venerated (that is, kissed) the praying hands of Our Lady’s image, grateful that God’s grace comes to us through these hands and that they are always joined in prayer for us. Then another thing occurred to me: I ought to speak only the things that are compatible with this veneration.  If I was always aware that my lips were touching the all-pure hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary, could I ever say anything that she would find offensive or displeasing?

            I’ve sometimes heard people say, when another was speaking inappropriately: “Did you receive Holy Communion with that mouth?” (See also James 3:8-12.)  Likewise, we ought to remind ourselves, if we speak (or are tempted to speak) crudely or uncharitably: “Did you kiss the hands of the Blessed Virgin with those lips?”  Such reminders can help us stay on the path, live a life worthy of our calling, and not give the devil a chance to diminish our spiritual fruitfulness or wreck it altogether.  We should not take our consecration lightly, for the Mother of God doesn’t, either.

            Therefore we should not only pray for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world and in our hearts; we should also take concrete measures to advance it in whatever way we can.  Her triumph hinges upon our living according to the word of God (see, for example, Gal. 5:19-26, Eph. 4:25-32, and Col. 3:5-17).  The children of our heavenly Mother are “those who keep the commandments of God and bear witness to Jesus” (Rev. 12:17; read the whole chapter).  Mary’s triumph is established one heart at a time, and the more hearts that are hers, the more grace is poured out over the world so that still more hearts will be enlightened and opened.

            Love the Heart of Mary, then.  It will be a source of endless joy, sweetness, and blessing for you.  Your love for Mary’s Heart will inevitably lead you to offer prayer and sacrifice and reparation, for you will find it intolerable that her Heart is pierced by the thorns of the blasphemies and ingratitude of sinners.  You will experience the truth that genuine love is most profoundly expressed in sacrifice, and you will not hesitate to share in the Passion of Jesus and the sorrows of Mary, if only you can console their Hearts and help win grace for the salvation of souls.  Mary’s motherly love and presence in your life will more than make up for whatever she may ask you to offer.  Let her take you to herself, so that she can then take you to Our Lord, for this is what she does with all hearts that are given to her.  You will never regret that you made your heart Mary’s own possession, for you will thus find Heaven in her Heart.  And you’ll have all eternity to thank the Lord for this precious gift!

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 20)

Mystical Union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary

            I need not go into great detail about it here, but it is true that some favored souls receive the grace of mystical union with Mary.  This is a most precious fruit of our total consecration, but it is sheer gift from God and cannot be obtained solely by our labors and prayers, although if we are to receive it our souls must be properly disposed.  Fr Chaminade, the founder of the Marianists, wrote: “There is a gift of the habitual presence of the Blessed Virgin even as there is a gift of the habitual presence of God—very rare, it is true, but obtainable through great fidelity.”  The great fidelity is what predisposes our soul, but he also makes it clear that it is a gift, and hence freely given as God and Our Lady choose.

            Such blessed souls who receive this gift of mystical union with Mary, writes Fr Garrigou-Lagrange in The Mother of the Saviour, “are conscious of the influence which Mary exercises on us continually by transmitting actual graces to our souls.”  Graces always come to us through Mary as the motherly Mediatrix, but those who are in personal union with her are consciously and sweetly aware of her gentle presence, and thus their hearts are habitually enkindled with an irrepressible love for her.

            I have quoted Venerable Marie Petyt of St Teresa several times already, but I’d like to conclude with a few more passages from her writings, which come directly from her personal experience.  I hope that her beautiful writings will encourage you to seek a deeper life in God through Our Lady.  Venerable Marie Petyt is one of those relatively rare souls who experienced a profound mystical union with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“It happens that my soul, turned completely towards God and adhering to Him in contemplation and fruition of his absolutely simple Being, experiences at the same time a like adherence to Mary, a like contemplation and enjoyment of Mary in so far as She is one with God and united to Him… God in His goodness has granted me also the grace of breathing gently, as it were, in Mary, of living in Her and experiencing a wonderful sweetness when I hear or pronounce Her dear name, and even when I merely think of it… She produces and nourishes the life of the soul in God by a perceptible influx of graces which go before the soul, arouse it to action, strengthen and accompany it in action, and allow it to persevere in this life in God with greater constancy and purity.  This influx of grace which gives life to the soul seems to proceed directly from the loving Heart and hands of Mary… in order to adorn our souls and render them beautiful in the sight of God…

“She remains constantly before me, leading and instructing me in the path of the spirit and in the perfect practice of the virtues, urging me on by Her sweet, motherly smile.  And thus not for a moment do I lose the feeling of Her presence and of the presence of God… I completely relinquished ownership of myself and gave that self entirely to Mary, so that it might be as property no longer belonging to me but to Her…  Since I made that offering, I can feel Her direction much more sensibly, much more clearly and certainly; She guides me in all that I must do or omit, as if She were leading me by the hand… She shows me how to correct myself… how to purify my soul in God… It seems that a ray comes forth from Her maternal Heart, giving me the light by which to perceive these things and the will to carry them out in practice…

“My desire is so intense to please my dearest Mother in all things, to do always what She likes best.  Within my soul there is the most devoted attention, in order that I might perceive the very slightest interior indication of Her preferences… How deeply do I feel enamored of Her when I think of Her great kindness and Her motherly love for us! … I am always conscious of the action of Mary’s spirit, inciting me, commanding me, directing me, in almost everything I do…

“I receive the powerful influence of Her spirit within my soul…  Sometimes God acts in different manners on the powers of my soul.  Then I remain passive, resolved to submit to the measureless grandeur of God.  Suddenly He fills me with a tender and childlike love for my dearest Mother, and He teaches me words of loving admiration… I felt that I received the supernatural life in my soul from God, through Mary, so that I seemed to live, to act, and to love through God and through Mary… The flames of love are springing forth again with great violence… Would that it might be given to me, and to all, to depart from life in this manner, out of love for God and for Mary…”

            Yes, would that we could all die with flames of love springing from our hearts for God and for Mary!  This is the precious fruit of our faith, our devotion, our consecration.  This is Heaven in her Heart: finding therein the Uncreated Light and Love which she bears with her as Tabernacle of the Divinity, which she gives us as Mediatrix of Grace.  As Mother, she ardently longs to enclose us within her Immaculate Heart and thus to bring us to Our Lord, exclaiming to the whole heavenly court: “Behold: I and the children God has given me!” (Heb. 2:13).

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 19)

Reparation: An Important Practice of Our Consecration

            When we belong completely to Mary, she can offer us to Jesus as her own: this is why she draws us to herself.  Mary does not seek her own glory.  She already has endless glory in Heaven.  She is loved by God more than any other creature, and she enjoys the love and honor of countless angels and saints, whom she can command at will.  If she requires our homage, it is only because this consoles and delights the Heart of her Son, for whom she will do anything.

            Mary loves God so much that she does whatever it takes to bring souls to Him.  If that means first attracting us by her goodness, tender compassion, and motherly love, all well and good.   Once we are drawn irresistibly to her and surrender ourselves to her beautiful, loving Heart, and are thus willing to do anything to remain in her love, she is free to do with us as she pleases.  So what she does is offer us to God as living sacrifices for the salvation of souls!  For next to her love for God, the most important thing to our heavenly Mother is the salvation of her children.  Offering sacrifices and reparation are ways to win grace for souls and to help keep them out of Hell, so if we have lovingly placed ourselves at Mary’s service, she will ask us to share in the difficult work of helping to save souls.

            The offering of reparation is the fruit of our love.  Jesus loved us so much that He gave his life for us, suffering unspeakable pain in order to atone for our sins.  He said: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13).  To offer reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners is a way of “laying down our lives” for them, and for love of Jesus and Mary.  The following are some messages concerning reparation to the Heart of Mary, received by Lucia (later Sister Lucia) at Fatima and elsewhere, after she became a nun.

            Our Lady said at Fatima: “I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.”

            On December 10, 1925, Mary and the Child Jesus appeared to Lucia at a convent in Pontevedra, Spain.  Our Lady rested her hand on Lucia’s shoulder, revealing her Heart encircled by thorns.  The Child Jesus said: “Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation…”

            Our Lady spoke next, saying: “Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

            Mary also told Sister Lucia: “There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask for reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray…”

            Why were five first Saturdays of reparation requested?  It was in order to help atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Attacks upon Mary’s Immaculate Conception, attacks against her Perpetual Virginity, attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind, publicly implanting in children’s hearts indifference, contempt, and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother, and, finally, insulting her directly in her sacred images.

            Our Lady said that her Immaculate Heart was pierced as it were by thorns because of those who sin against her, especially through blasphemy and ingratitude, and that she wants us to console her for this pain in her Heart and thus to win grace for the sinners.

            We might ask at this point how anyone in Heaven can suffer and at the same time abide in eternal happiness.  This is a mystery, but it must be true, since Heaven has confirmed it, though it is still something we cannot easily comprehend.  Blaise Pascal famously wrote: “Christ is in agony until the end of the world,” because He is one with the members of his Body who suffer on earth.  Because He still relates to us in time, He experiences grief and pain over our sins, even though He once and for all nailed them to the Cross.  Raissa Maritain wrote that there is “an unnamed perfection” in God that is analogous to human suffering.  So this mysterious suffering out of love, even in Heaven, enhances the divine perfection rather than diminishing it.

            Since Our Lady suffered so intensely and lovingly in union with Jesus on Golgotha, we can be sure that He has united her to Himself in Heaven in a similar way. Mary shares in all the divine perfections in the fullest way possible for one who remains a creature.  She is, of course, supremely happy in Heaven in relation to God and all the angels and saints, but in relation to her sinful and suffering children, she will endure a mysterious kind of suffering until the last judgment and general resurrection.  So even if the thorns piercing her Heart are symbolic representations, the reality to which they refer is not at all symbolic, but one that draws tears from the heavenly Mother, which are sometimes even manifested in her sacred images in this world.

Mother of our Peace

            Even if we are called to suffer in order to join our heavenly Mother in sharing Jesus’ work of saving souls, we can remain in peace if we are united to her Heart.  This mystery is beautifully explained in the following reflection by Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, OSB:

“There was never moment when the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not established in peace. Her Immaculate Heart is a haven of peace for poor sinners, a refuge from the attacks of the enemy who seeks to destroy all peace in our souls and on the face of the earth… The closer we are to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the closer we are to peace, that is, the absence of sin. Sin is what disturbs true peace; sin is what destroys peace. If you would have peace, avoid sin, and should you fall into sin, confess it without delay, so that peace may be restored to your soul. Mary, being sinless from the first instant of her conception, is, of all creatures, the most peaceful. She is utterly tranquil and perfectly serene.

“God created the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be the single most peaceful place in the universe. Mary is the living temple prepared by God for God; her Heart is a sanctuary untouched by the violence and wickedness of a world seduced by Satan. Even when, as a mother full of pity for her wayward children, Mary presses sinners to her Heart, nothing of sin’s contagion taints her. The Immaculate is not soiled by the filth of her fallen children, even as she stoops to lift us out of the mire of our miseries.

“If you would be apt for the advent of the Lord, seek peace where it is to be found: in the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God. The closer you are to Mary, the more will you experience a peace that the world cannot give. Mary will teach you to discern the things that make for peace and avoid those that threaten to destroy it.

“The peace of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not diminished by suffering; it flourishes in the midst of thorns. The old Benedictine motif depicting the word PAX surrounded by a crown of thorns—pax inter spinas—is a kind of monogram of the Heart of the Mother of God. Did she not appear at Fatima with her Immaculate Heart surrounded by thorns?

“The inviolable peace of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was purchased at a great price, that is, with the Precious Blood of her Son, the immolated Lamb. If, in making our way to the sanctuary of the maternal Heart of Mary, we must pass through the thorns that encircle it, it is so that we might be associated with the redeeming Passion of her Son, and so that a few drops of our blood might be mingled with the torrent of that flood so copiously from His head, His hands, His feet, and His side.

“Those of you who have come to love the rosary know that it produces peace in the soul of one who perseveres in praying it. The rosary leads one directly into the refuge of Mary’s sinless heart, into a sanctuary of peace that cannot be threatened, troubled, or assailed by powers visible or invisible. Peace, being the absence of sin, is rightly in the giving of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. If you pray her rosary, she will give you her peace.” (http://vultus.stblogs.org/2013/01/mary-is-the-mother-of-our-peac.html)

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 18)

Mother and Mistress

            In describing certain dimensions of our consecration, there are two terms we ought to try to recover for spiritual use.  The meanings of these terms have been altered over the centuries or have acquired undesirable connotations.  One beautiful title for Mary, which many saints of old have used, is “Mistress.”  This is simply the feminine form of the word “Master,” as “Lady” is of “Lord.” The word “Lady” also needs to be rehabilitated, for its common usage makes it apply to almost any woman and not specifically to a noble woman who holds great authority and power.

            Nowadays, the English word “mistress” is mostly used to describe a woman with whom a married man is having an affair.  Thus many would perhaps not wish to use the term for the all-pure Virgin Mother and Queen!  Personally, however, I have gotten used to calling Mary my heavenly Mistress, for it is another way to call her my Queen or my Lady, but perhaps it is even a stronger term than those, for it implies a kind of “ownership.”  This sort of relationship is developed at length by St Louis de Montfort in his classic book, True Devotion to Mary.

            If Mary is my Mistress, then I am necessarily her slave, though in a special and beautiful sense. This word, “slave,” is another term with which many people are uncomfortable.  But let’s at least try to understand its meaning in the writings of the saints.  We may adopt or reject any such term for use in our spiritual lives—though we are not free to dismiss dogmatic titles like Mother of God, Ever-virgin, Immaculate Conception, etc—but we ought at least to have some understanding before we make any decisions.

            First of all, “slave” is a biblical term that often is not translated accurately.  In English bibles, it is usually translated “servant,” perhaps because the translators think we cannot tolerate the word of God in full strength.  When you read “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:1), you should know that it really says “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”  Likewise, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”(James 1:1), is really “James, a slave of God…”  St Paul also goes on at length in Romans (6:15-23) about how we are no longer slaves of sin but “slaves of God” (6:22).  He sums it up clearly when he writes: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  So when St Louis de Montfort invites us to become slaves of Christ by giving ourselves as such to Mary, he is affirming with St Paul that we are not our own, and thus his background is biblical.

            St Paul also said to St Timothy: “Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor” (1 Tim. 6:1).  If the Bible says that earthly masters are to be considered “worthy of all honor,” we ought all the more to honor Mary, who is our heavenly Mistress!  Of course, St Louis’ idea of slavery also has nothing to do with a cruel and inhuman institution.   St Louis is thinking more of the European monarchies of his day, and according to his cultural background he would have us be devoted slaves of a benevolent King and Queen.

            There’s another point that we should consider.  “Slave” is, in a practical sense, closer in meaning to “son” or “daughter” than it is to “servant.”  We all know Mary as our Mother, and that is the primary way to approach her.  But if we wish to consecrate our lives to her, she acquires an additional sort of authority over us, which merits the title “Mistress” (or Queen or Lady, if you prefer).  A servant is basically a hireling who works for pay and has little relation to those who hire him apart from his work.  A servant still belongs to himself.  A slave, however, belongs to his master (or his mistress), but so does a young child belong to his mother and father!  The child is not independent of them, he needs and depends on them for everything, and obedience is expected from him.  He does not merely perform a series of tasks and then do whatever he wishes when his service is done.  So both a little child and a slave are under the absolute authority of the one(s) to whom they belong, unlike a servant.

            The point is this: we ought to consider it an honor to be slaves of our heavenly Mistress, because we should desire to belong to her.  Sift out the negative connotations and think of it as total belonging.  By our consecration to Mary, we belong to her, and in belonging to her, we belong to the Lord, for, as you recall, whatever we offer to Mary, she offers to God as her own, for his good pleasure and greater glory.

            A few more texts from St Louis de Montfort will help us understand this:

“It is the most decided wish of the Son that we should come to Him through His Blessed Mother.  We honor and please Him by doing so, just as a subject would please and honor his King by making himself a slave of the Queen… A king will glory in the fact that the queen, his companion, has slaves… since the honor paid to her and the power she exercises is honor done to him and is his power; and can it be credited that Our Lord—Who, as the best of all sons, has shared His entire power with His Blessed Mother—should take it amiss that she has her slaves?” (True Devotion, #76).

“Since we lower ourselves willingly to a state of slavery out of love for Mary, our dear Mother, she out of gratitude opens wide our hearts enabling us to walk with giant strides in the way of God’s commandments.  She delivers our souls from weariness, sadness and scruples.  It was this devotion that our Lord taught to Mother Agnes de Langeac, a religious who died in the odor of sanctity, as a sure way of being freed from the severe suffering and confusion of mind which afflicted her. ‘Make yourself,’ He said, ‘my Mother’s slave, and wear her little chain.’  She did so, and from that time onwards her troubles ceased” (The Secret of Mary #41).

“One day, the Blessed Virgin appeared to [Mother Agnes], and placed a golden chain about her neck to show her how pleased this good Mother had been when she made herself the slave of Jesus and of Mary; and Saint Cecilia, who accompanied the Blessed Virgin in this vision, said to Mother Agnes: ‘Blessed are the faithful slaves of the Queen of Heaven, because they shall enjoy true liberty…’” (True Devotion, #170).

            If you still have some difficulty with the word “slave,” yet you understand and accept the concept of total belonging and perpetual service, there is another term that can be used: “bond-servant.”  I have seen this in at least one biblical translation.  It is a synonym for “slave,” meaning literally one who is bound to serve another without any wages.  Yet this term is also open to the spiritual understanding of a personal “bonding” with the Heart of Mary.  As such it has nothing to do with the “bondage” of one who is a slave against his will.

            So as bond-servants of the Queen, we bind ourselves to Mary’s service, without expecting any “wage” in return, yet still full of confidence that this service will incline the loving Heart of Jesus to freely grant us his overflowing grace and mercy.  The very word “religion” is derived from a Latin term meaning “to bind,” so the Christian faith is essentially a binding of ourselves to Christ in loving service for the fulfillment of his will, in the hope of receiving the gift of eternal life.  To bind ourselves to Christ by becoming bond-servants of his holy Mother is a particularly blessed and fruitful way of living our life in Him.

            Finally, let us remember these words of St Louis de Montfort, to encourage us in our faithful service of the Queen, which is ultimately service of the King: “Whenever you turn your thoughts to Mary, Mary refers your thoughts to God in her own personal worship, so that you cannot praise or honor Mary without Mary immediately praising and honoring God in your name… When she is praised, when she is loved, when she is honored or when any gift is made to her, it is God Who is praised, loved and glorified, and it is God Who receives the gift through Mary and in Mary” (True Devotion, #225).  Everything finds its goal and fulfillment in God, and therefore all we do must be ultimately intended to glorify Him.  By giving ourselves over to our beloved Mistress, we know that the best possible worship, prayer, sacrifice, and service will be offered to the Lord, for she will make it as perfect as her own.  Blessed are the faithful slaves of the Queen of Heaven!

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 17)

Mother of Our Divine Life

            When preaching the word of God to his people, Jesus solemnly declared this holy and saving truth: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him… As I live because of the Father, so he who eats of me will live because of me…” (Jn. 6:51, 54, 56-57).

            We see from Jesus’ words that whoever receives his Body and Blood in Holy Communion (worthily, that is; see 1 Cor. 11:27-30) will live forever.  Yet such a person already has eternal life, says the Lord.  This life is “in you” (6:53).  What we usually think of as “eternal life” is the “live forever” part, which is, of course, true.  But this doesn’t express the whole truth.  To say that eternal life is in us when we eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of Christ, is to say that eternal life is divine life, the life of God, of Christ, in us.  God is eternal and therefore the life He gives is eternal—beginning now and lasting forever in Heaven.

            Our divine (eternal) life begins at baptism and is strengthened by faith and prayer, but primarily by the Holy Eucharist.  Jesus’ Flesh and Blood were given to us as food, “for the life of the world.”  We have this life of Christ in us; it is given as a gift.  It is for us to do our utmost to help maintain and preserve it so that we may be “raised up on the last day.”  But because of our weakness and inborn inclination to sin this is extremely difficult, and we risk losing our eternal life and happiness.

            This is where Our Lady comes in.  Mary is Mother of God the Son incarnate; she carried Him in her womb, gave birth to Him, nursed Him, raised Him, and took care of him.  What she does in our souls is analogous to what she did for Jesus on earth.  She nurtures his presence within us, from the moment of baptism to the hour of our death.  Mary is the universal Mother, given to us as such on Calvary.  She is now glorified in Heaven and exercises all the power God grants to her as Mother and Mediatrix of Grace.  It is her task to preserve and bring to full maturity the divine and eternal life in us, to keep it safe for the Kingdom of Heaven.

            We ought to be more consciously aware, then, of the presence of the Mother in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist at every offering of the Holy Mass or Divine Liturgy.  We may not always reflect on the fact that, as the mystery of Our Lord’s death and resurrection is sacramentally re-presented on every Catholic altar, the whole redemptive event—including the presence of Mary at the foot of the Cross—is likewise made present.  Blessed John Paul writes of this in his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Church of the Eucharist):

“In the memorial of Calvary [which is the Eucharistic Sacrifice], all that Christ accomplished by his passion and his death is present.  Consequently all that Christ did with regard to his Mother for our sake is also present.  To her he gave the beloved disciple and, in him, each of us…  To each of us he also says: ‘Behold your mother!’ (cf. Jn. 19: 26-27).  Experiencing the memorial of Christ’s death in the Eucharist also means continually receiving this gift.  It means accepting—like John—the one who is given to us anew as our Mother.  It also means taking on a commitment to be conformed to Christ, putting ourselves at the school of his Mother and allowing her to accompany us.  Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist.  If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist” (#57).

            Therefore we continually receive the gift of Mary as Mother every time we participate in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  This makes it all the more clear that she is the Mother of our Divine Life, which is in our souls as Christ’s abiding presence given to us in Holy Communion.

            Concerning Mary as Mother of Christ’s life in us, Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP, writes: “Mary is eternally the Mother of the members of Christ: Mother of their divine life, a mother who never ceases to beget them to this divine life; a mother who never ceases to watch over them, carry them, feed them, sustain them, educate them and direct them toward the Heart of Jesus and toward the Father while teaching them to be completely docile to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…

            “In His wisdom, God willed to fully establish Mary as Mother of His Son so that she might fully be Mother of [Christ’s] members, in order that she might eternally play this role as Mother of our divine life.  That is why the gift of this divine life which she gives to her children is realized in this particular modality of maternity.  She is the vital milieu where their divine life can blossom.  She is the one who carries and envelops their Christian life, who disposes their souls to the action of the Holy Spirit… Mary’s maternal rule over us primarily concerns the blossoming of our Christian life, the perfection of our life of faith, hope, and love…”  (from The Mystery of Mary; see his fuller treatment of this insight in Appendix C).

            The whole of our life is held in her motherly arms, wrapped in her mantle of holy protection, watched over carefully to preserve the Divine Life within us.  This is her main concern and is also the concern of our guardian angels and patron saints and whoever we call upon in Heaven for help.  Nothing is more important to them (and nothing should be more important to us) than allowing this Divine Life—Christ abiding in us and we in Him—to flourish in us.

            It is almost as if our souls are like Mary’s womb, for we carry the life of Christ delicately within us, waiting for the full revelation of his Mystery when all is finally manifest.  The Divine Life in us seems as fragile and vulnerable as an unborn child, because with the terrible gift of our free will we are able to cast it from us by turning away from the Lord in a deliberate or even definitive manner.  So all of Heaven is praying for us, that the Divine Life in us will “come to term,” will grow and become ever stronger, sanctifying us and preparing us for an eternity of irrepressible life and joy in the Kingdom of Heaven.

            So in a spiritual sense Our Lady brings to birth countless children of God, nourishes and cares for their Divine Life as the heavenly Mother.  She sees and loves Jesus in us and takes care of us with the love with which God enabled her to love Jesus in such a surpassing manner, like no other. The Infant or Child Jesus in Mary’s arms can be for us a symbol of our Divine Life that she holds and draws to her Heart and loves and cares for. We are reflections of Him for her: the brothers and sisters of her Only-begotten.

            In the measure we give ourselves to her, she can embrace and protect our lives and insure that the Divine Life will grow in us in ways we could not accomplish on our own, even with the ordinary help of grace.  For if Mary, the all-holy, all-pure one, is leading and guiding us, and if we have placed everything in her hands, the life of Christ will come to perfection in us.  She can do this by the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, with whom she constantly and intimately works.  This is the main reason we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

            Heaven weeps if we disregard or reject the gift of divine and eternal life, offered through baptism and Holy Communion.  The saints and angels do all in their power to help us restore it if we have foolishly lost it or thrown it away.  The meaning of our life is simply to cherish this inner Divine Life and make it bear fruit through whatever mission the Lord gives us.  For once we have the Divine Life in us, we are called to help others to open themselves to receive it, according to our particular vocations.

            Make sure, then, that you receive and live from the Divine, Eternal Life that is in you, especially through the Sacraments, through worthy and devout reception of Holy Communion.  Then allow the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the Mother of your Divine Life, to see to it that this Life grows and matures and is kept safe for the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Divine Life is everything.  There is no other reason we are in this world—except to share the knowledge of this precious gift with others, so that all the children of God can come Home to eternal happiness.

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 16)

Chapter Six: Loving the Immaculate Heart

            For our own spiritual life, this is perhaps the most important chapter of all, because in loving the Immaculate Heart of Mary—with all this implies for Marian devotion and consecration and living accordingly—we will in fact experience something of Heaven in her Heart.  We will embrace and cherish her precious Heart as our refuge and our way to God.  Mary offered her Heart to us for this very purpose, so our consecration to her bears Heaven’s approval.  She urges us to consecrate ourselves for our own good and that of others.

            If we are serious about faithfulness to our devotion to Our Lady, this devotion will bear fruit in a personal consecration to her.  To be “consecrated” simply means to be set apart for a sacred purpose.  A person can be consecrated to God in an official, ecclesiastical way by the profession of religious vows.  One can also offer oneself to God and Our Lady in a private, personal way by means of various prayers of consecration, along with applying the meaning of that consecration in daily life.  In the case of consecration to Mary, the “setting apart” is for the purpose of honoring the Mother of God and living in union with her as an integral part of one’s way of life in Christ.  If you love Mary, you will not be satisfied with offering a few prayers or practicing certain devotions every now and then—you will want to enter into a profound union with her Immaculate Heart.

            This union with the Heart is Mary is meant not only as the best way to love her and to receive her love, but ultimately as the best way to love God.  As we are increasingly attracted by the beauty, sweetness, and exquisite love of Mary’s Heart, we will beg her to enclose us spiritually in her Immaculate Heart, desiring to experience this Heart as both a maternal refuge and our way to God.  Something profound then happens, as the mystic Venerable Marie Petyt of St Teresa describes from her own experience: “At times it also seems that I am… enclosed within Her most pure Heart.  I become mad with love for Mary and for God at once, and I abandon myself entirely to this union.  Thus is realized a divine life, at once twofold and simple, which brings about a pure, lofty, and perfect manner of loving our holy Mother… This life for Mary and in Mary and, at the same time, for and in God, is properly reserved for Her true lovers, for Her darling children whom she has chosen.”

            So once we are enclosed within the Heart of Mary, not only does the Holy Spirit lead us to love Mary beyond anything we have before experienced, we begin simultaneously to love God with Mary’s own love, her own Heart.  This is far beyond anything we could produce of ourselves, even aided by grace, for in Mary is the fullness of grace and the summit of love.  Thus by seeking union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we “become mad with love for Mary and for God at once”!  The more we love Mary, the more we will love God with her own Heart; and the more we love God, the more He will be pleased to increase our love for the Woman He loves most!

            We set limits to our love if we do not consecrate ourselves to Our Lady.   In an article in the Marian Helpers Bulletin, Fr Joseph Pelletier wrote this, concerning Marian consecration:

“Consecration to Mary is certainly an important step forward in a devotion to her, particularly if this consecration is repeated often enough with a fullness of heart. The consecration, by its nature, implies a desire to draw closer to Mary, to assure her influence over one’s entire life.  If repeated often enough—for example on rising or during morning prayers, at Mass, or Holy Communion—the consecration will create an intimate relationship between Mary and the soul. It will invariably have a powerful effect on one’s spiritual life.”

            So the real goal of consecration to Mary is to “establish a life of close union with her. This step could be considered a sort of extension of the consecration of the soul to Mary, that is, a means of strengthening that consecration and bringing it to fruition.  Union with Mary is the immediate goal of true devotion to Our Lady, union with God being the ultimate objective… any person can legitimately aspire to it and dispose oneself for it.”

            Notice that Fr Pelletier says that frequent repetition of our consecration to Mary helps “create an intimate relationship between Mary and the soul.”  You cannot merely wish to be united to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  If this is what you really want, you have to take concrete steps to attain it.  Praying often to her and renewing your consecration will help keep you mindful of her presence and her love, and you will also thus be more inclined to live in a manner that pleases her.  All of this contributes to disposing your soul for a deeper and more personal union with our heavenly Mother.

More on the Meaning of Consecration and Union

            I’d like to share a few excerpts from a book entitled One More Gift, by Fr Luigi Faccenda, about the Marian spirituality of St Maximilian Kolbe, the final paragraph of the excerpts consisting of quotes by the saint himself.  These will help us understand the kind of personal gift we make to Our Lady with our consecration—a gift that is all-encompassing, and which only thus can bear the most spiritual fruit for the glory of God and for Mary’s honor as well.  This is very beautiful, and the more you know and love Our Lady, the more you will love to give yourself to her!  Fr Faccenda writes:

“Through our consecration we offer to Mary our soul with all its powers and faculties: affections, memory, intellect, will, and freedom.  We offer to her our material goods, both present and future.  We give her our spiritual goods, which means our merits, virtues, and past, present, and future good works.  This offering involves not only the goodness in us, but also our sinfulness and weaknesses.  The Heart of Mary is like an altar on which all that we are becomes like incense, because she purifies and enriches it with her fullness of grace and her merits.  Mary takes possession of our whole being, offering it to God as her own…

“Those who consecrate themselves to Mary and experience her strength in temptations and her consolation in difficulties feel their desire to share their joy with others, so that they too may be drawn to Mary.  In this way, Mary will enlighten their hearts, warm them with her maternal love, and enkindle them with the fire of charity which burns in the divine Heart of Jesus…

“‘Let us not limit our love; let us love Jesus with her Heart, for she loved Him with that very Heart.  Let our love for God be the very love of the Immaculata.  For this to be a reality we must be hers—entirely, completely, and in every way—hers…  All that is good flows through the hands of the Immaculate Mediatrix of Grace from God… Trust without limit in her and all your weaknesses will be turned about to your own good… We must radiate Mary in the midst of our surroundings, winning souls for her, so that souls might open to her, that she might rule within them all… and that her life would be deepened in us day to day, hour upon hour, moment by moment, and without limit… souls consecrated to her live by her and frequently think about her.  They love her wholeheartedly and endeavor to know her desires, whether from her own lips or those entrusted by her in the form of interior aspirations.  They strive to make her will known and loved, drawing more and more souls to a perfect knowledge of her and a more heartfelt love of Jesus’ divine Heart in and through her.’”

            A couple of points can be made here.  We give everything to Mary so she can give it to God, for she can do so more perfectly than we can.  Since she alone is all-pleasing to the Lord, He will immediately accept whatever is offered to Him at her hands.  There is a very striking passage on this point in the writings of Venerable Marie Petyt.  In describing one of her mystical visions, she wrote: “When I was about to receive Holy Communion, I saw my dear Mother near me, to my right, and also Her dear Son, Jesus; He was directly in front of me.  I gave my heart to this lovable Mother, so that She might deign to give it to Jesus…”  Even when Jesus was standing right before her, in her humility and her trust that whatever we wish to give to God is most purely and fruitfully done through Mary, she gave her heart to Mary so that the Blessed Virgin would give it to her Son!

            Mary cannot offer our prayers and sacrifices and our very selves to God as her own if they, and we, are not in fact her own.  Our consecration is not mere pious language.  We really have to belong to Mary. We have to hand ourselves over to her and make ourselves her personal property.  Only thus can she can freely give us to Jesus as something she has a right to give, something belonging personally to her—and hence as something completely pleasing to Him, for no one pleases Him more than Mary.  St Louis de Montfort makes clear in his writings that Jesus will accept with pleasure anything we offer—on condition that it is offered by the hands of Our Lady.  If our goal really is to give the greatest possible pleasure and glory to the Lord, giving all to Mary first is the best way to achieve it.

To be continued…

Heaven in Her Heart (Part 15)

Mary Continues Her Heavenly Mission

            The Marian Era is characterized by an unprecedented number of heavenly apparitions, always with an emphasis on prayer and penance, return to God and to the sacraments, and to the whole life of the Church, often with the mention of Mary’s Immaculate Heart.  In the United States, Mary appeared to a nun named Sister Mary Ephrem, saying she wanted to be known by us as Our Lady of America, and that she had come to call us back to purity of life.  The United States has been formally placed under the patronage of Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception since 1846.  Our Lady appeared to Sister Mary Ephrem beginning in the mid-1950s, well aware of what was awaiting this country in the 1960s and beyond, if we didn’t heed her messages.  We didn’t, and the results are obvious and disastrous.

            Here are a few words of Mary, concerning her message and her Heart:

“I am the Immaculate One, Patroness of your land.  Be my faithful children as I have been your faithful Mother… I desire to make the whole of America my shrine by making every heart accessible to the love of my Son… Will my children in America listen to my pleadings and console my Immaculate Heart? …

“Reform of life is what I ask as the sign and proof of my children’s love for me.  God looks at the heart, and if it resembles the Heart of His Divine Son, it is with the greatest pleasure that He regards it.  But to make your hearts grow more and more like the Heart of the Son, you must go to the Mother, whose Heart is most like His.  From this Pure and Immaculate Heart you will learn all that will make you more pleasing to the Divine Heart of the Son of God… Come to me, my children, come to me and learn… Do not disregard the voice of your Mother.  It is the voice of love trying to save you from eternal ruin… Come to me, poor suffering and frightened ones. I am your Mother.  Never will I forsake you.  Only come to me with a wholehearted and loving trust.  Place your souls into my keeping. I am that faithful Mother who never forsakes her children. Honor me by your confidence and love…

“My Heart, my Immaculate Heart, is the channel through which the graces of the Sacred Heart are given to men… time passes, and with it wasted graces and constant refusals on the part of man to cooperate with me in the accomplishment of the Divine Will for his own sanctification and salvation.  What am I to do, child of my Heart, when my children turn from me?  The false peace of this world lures them and in the end will destroy them… Souls who cling to sin cannot have their hands free to receive the treasures of grace that I hold out to them… Behold, then, my Heart pierced by a cruel sword!  Oh, what grief my children have caused me! … we must have more souls who love, love unselfishly and without reserve.”

            Another rich source of light concerning the heavenly mission of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the book of locutions received by the Italian priest, Fr Stefano Gobbi (1930-2011), through whom Our Lady established the worldwide Marian Movement of Priests.  The book of messages, given over a period of about 25 years, carries the imprimatur, which means there is nothing in it contrary to Catholic faith or morals, and the Movement has received the Apostolic Blessing of Pope (Blessed) John Paul II.  There has been, however, some controversy over the content of some of the later messages, which contained apocalyptic predictions that evidently have not come to pass.  It is not known whether Fr Gobbi misinterpreted certain things that were communicated to him, or perhaps unwittingly allowed some of his own personal convictions to influence and hence somewhat alter Our Lady’s messages.

            There is a simple solution to this: don’t bother with the apocalyptic messages.  The majority of the locutions—especially the early ones, in the 1970s and 1980s, which are likely to be the most authentic—are mainly focused on our consecration to the Immaculate Heart and how to live it. What is important is to develop our personal relationship with our heavenly Mother.  Thus we will be prepared for whatever is to come, without having to spend time speculating about it.  Our Lady’s messages here are very beautiful, and they draw us to her Heart in a very tender and loving way—though she is clear that she takes seriously our consecration and does not hesitate to tell us what it means to belong completely to her!

            Here are just a few messages from the Blessed Mother:

“Hasten to my Immaculate Heart.  Come to me… I have prepared a secure refuge for you where you must gather together to be comforted and saved.  This refuge is my Immaculate Heart! … You who are totally entrusted to me, listen to me and follow me… I myself, as Mother, am committed to make you just what my Son Jesus desires you to be… Allow yourself to be formed by me… in a very particular and personal way…

“If you remain in the garden of my Immaculate Heart, you become my property…  In my arms and in my Immaculate Heart you will be consoled… I will defend you from the evil one, who can do nothing to harm those who are part of my property… Walk in trust… I am your heavenly Mother and I am at your side.  I am protecting and leading you.  I am sheltering and defending you.  Do not be worried about what is going to happen to you, because everything has already been arranged in my Motherly Heart… I have drawn close to you; I have taken your heart in my hands… Do not be afraid anymore…  You always have with you the Mother who leads you by the hand, who presses you to her Immaculate Heart…”

            With these and many other messages from Heaven, Mary continues her mission to call us to repentance and a deeper life of prayer and faithfulness to Our Lord by consecrating ourselves to her Immaculate Heart.  Her mission is to see to it that God’s will is done in us and to keep us on the difficult but life-giving path to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Mary’s heavenly mission will continue until the end of time, until the full number of the elect has been secured for the life of everlasting happiness.  As Mediatrix of Grace, she is in a perfect position to help us, so we ought to have frequent recourse to her and not only cooperate with her in the work of our own sanctification and salvation, but also help her to win souls for God by our prayer and sacrifice.

            Our Lady said at Fatima: “Pray, pray very much and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.”  It may very well be that some of our own family or friends might be lost forever if we do not pray and offer sacrifices for them, to obtain the grace they need to repent and be saved.  We have received much from the Lord, which others have not received.  Therefore much will be required of us in return (see Lk. 12:48), for we have a responsibility toward our fellow members of the Body of Christ.  So let us help our heavenly Mother to succeed in her ongoing mission to gather souls for the Lord!

To be continued…