Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. 2. For He was everything to you, and all else was nothing without Him. Mary, My Mother, as I cannot grasp the depth of your sanctity, I cannot understand the measure of your grace. What songs of gladness by the elect as you were crowned by the Blessed Trinity and made Queen of heaven, advocate of the human race and dispenser of the graces of the Redemption! As your true and lawful spouse, Saint Joseph was meant by God to have the privilege of exercising as his right, in virtue of his virginal marriage, the parental office in regard to your Child. Mary, My Mother, you are Queen also because your are Co-Redemptrix. I beg you to make me strong enough to bear my trials for the love of God so that I may become like you in suffering. Mary, My Mother, your power as Mother of Divine Providence is indeed as great as your compassion and willingness to help. I, too, am a sinner. Balaam referred to you as a star: "The star which shall arise from Jacob." Rule over us by the queenly power of your love that the Kingdom of your Sonthe Kingdom of Truth and Life, Holiness and Grace, Justice, Love and Peacemay come upon earth. Her name, feast day, location of her monastery, and attributes are those of the Celtic Goddess Brigit. 2. I thank you for consenting to become my spiritual Mother by giving me Jesus. 2. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce " Since you were enlightened by the Scriptures, you realized that your Child would be contradicted and utterly rejected by the Jews, who had, for forty centuries, unceasingly sighed for Him as a Savior. Prophets foretold the coming of the Savior and the manner in which the Redemption would take place. Mary, My Mother, as the Immaculate Conception, you are the Woman who appeared as the mortal enemy of the serpent. Mary, My Mother, you did acknowledge having received greater graces from God than had any other creature, for a humble heart always acknowledges the special favors of God that it may humble itself the more. Mary, My Mother, How perfectly you have followed the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and acted on divine wisdom! As you cradled the new-born Savior and nourished and cared for Him, so at Pentecost you cradled the new-born Church, watched over its frail, delicate body and fostered and nourished it with motherly care. It was indeed a divine life that Jesus led in Your womb, a life most active, and yet one of unbroken calm. You come nearest to the holiness of God. Through your powerful intercession obtain for them the graces they need. A woman, the tree, and death symbolize our defeat. This feast will take place this year under very special circumstances for us all. By His almighty power He would form the body of the Savior of the world, and the Divine Son would unite it to Himself forever. Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! . 3. Mary, Queen of the Apostles, pray for the triumph of God's Kingdom upon earth. Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day. 25. In this I see God's plan that in the Kingdom of Jesus all graces should go through your hands and Heart. Mary, My Mother, all the saints have prayed to you for help: the prophets, the evangelists, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the heroic virgins and chaste widows. 3. You were declared to be the spiritual "Mother of all the living." After your Divine Son, you are God's most precious gift to man. As the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour, you go about seeking whom you may save. Plead for us in the presence of God and provide for us those graces and blessings especially which will enable us to serve God better and save our souls. In 1482 the feast was added to the Missal under the title of "Our Lady of Compassion." Pope Benedict XIII added it to the Roman Calendar in 1727 on the Friday before Palm Sunday. Your apostolic workto snatch souls from Satan and from sin to make them live the supernatural lifeis the very reason for your motherhood. In your greater sorrow may my own be lost, and in calm resignation may my anguished soul find peace and strength. Mary, My Mother, help me to imitate your sinlessness by keeping my soul free from every willful sin by the faithful observance of God's commandments. I earnestly wish to make atonement for all of them. Pray for more lay apostles, who in every walk of life will defend the rights of God, proclaim His Truth and preach His holy Will by word and example. You are ever active in procuring for each and every one of us, by fervent and ceaseless intercession all the heavenly gifts we need. Here on earth kings and rulers lay at your feet their crowns, their very selves. Though declared blessed among women, yet you considered yourself the servant of two of God's beloved children. As our immaculate Mediatrix before your Son you have appeared at Lourdes to encourage us to amend our lives and to make sacrifices and offer prayers for sinners. In the spirit of loving confidence we have recourse to you. Mary, Mother of God, you are also the Mother of men. You are the Mother of the Uncreated Wisdom, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. How many souls have still to be brought under the rule of Christ the King! Isaias called you a Virgin; "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be Emmanuel." You are my Queen, my Lady. From all eternity God chose you to be His Mother, and in time He adorned you with every spiritual charm. The Church has always taught that God has entrusted to your hands all heavenly treasures, and many of the saints assure me that you give to your clients as much of these treasures as you wish and when you wish to do so. The Feasts of Our Lady Note: Only Universal Feasts have the Month cited with each Feast; Local Feasts, etc., are cited by date within each month, unless the particular Local Feast begins a month. Queen of the Holy Rosary, in times past, when the enemies of the Church sought to break its unity, you came to the aid of your suffering children. How often am I confused in the problems of life. Mary, My Mother, how kindly you provided for the needs of this newly-married couple! I am happy at the thought that you, a human creature, have escaped completely from the clutches of Satan, that born of a race universally tainted, you are more pure and more brilliant than the most sublime of the angels; and that you are my Mother. Blessed Mother, teach me humility. Your ardent faith and intense love pierced that thin veil which separated you from your loving Son. May these graces become most fruitful in my soul till I become like you, another Christ. You are truly the pledge of Divine mercy. But you are not the adoptive Mother of the Son of God; you are His real Mother. 3. You were united with Jesus when He bestowed special favors. Because of your dignity, you reach to the borders of the divine. Thus you associated yourself yet more directly and intimately with our salvation. Had the angel said you were the most wicked sinner in the world, your wonder would not have been so great, as it was at the sound of his praises. God is infinite good; sin, horrible evil. By granting them these graces you have performed a work of the apostolate. Whatever graces we receive, come to us through your intercession. How great was your trust in God! But you are the Mother of the living, for by your fidelity to your Maker you deserved to give to mankind a Redeemer who by His death has destroyed the reign of death and has thrown open to us the gates of everlasting life. The divine light, received from Him, led you deeper into the mystery of the Redemption and its effects in the past and in the future. Mary, My Mother, from your early years you adored the one true God in the Temple at Jerusalem. It means imitating your humility, your purity, your detachment from the world, and your unselfish resignation to the will of God in every event of life. 3. Only give me the grace to abandon myself completely to your motherly guidance. It urges my senses to lower desires, because I seek sensible pleasure in its every degree. As the seed of the serpent includes all those descendants of the first man and woman who by their sinful lives bear within them the traits of the devil, so, too, the seed of the Woman includes all who in the course of ages will take their stand with your Son, Jesus Christ, in His ceaseless conflict with the enemy of God. No one could ever love God with the love of a mother. 2. Bless the people of the Americas, citizens of those lands to which uncounted thousands have come to seek refuge and livelihood. Immaculate Mother, you are the hope of a sinful race. Yet Jesus was active in your womb adoring and praising God. You were not to raise up children unto Godnot ordinary offspring, but a Child, the Son of God! You were entirely under the influence of Christ's divinity. According to God's eternal standards, the sanctity proclaimed by Gabriel when he called you "full of grace," was but the beginning of your wonderful growth in holiness. This gift of Your Heart entitles you to be called the Mother of the Holy Eucharist. God looks for gratitude and humility which draw down upon us His favor and His gifts. Sanctifying grace likened you to God as it did no other pure creature. Do not forsake me sweet Mother of Sorrows, because you are my spiritual Mother. This Feast day is kept by various religious orders in the Church. This was a declaration that all Christians are your spiritual children. God, having once given us Jesus Christ by you, Holy Virgin, does not change His way of blessing us with His gifts. I shall be blessed if I imitate you in bearing my cross till death. With no tendency to evil, but with a deep yearning for the highest virtue, you glorified God more than all His other creatures. Apparition Of The Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate (Our Lady of Lourdes), Feast, February 11 (Novena, February 2-10). Seeing your own nothingness as compared with the infinite majesty of God, who chose you for His Mother, you acknowledged how unworthy you were of so great honor, but you did not oppose His will in the least thing. Feast, January 23 (Triduum, January 20-22). You had to become the Mother of Sorrows before you were raised above the angels as Heaven's Queen. But you help Christians also by your prayers. And the Holy Spirit, who descended upon you in the Incarnation with all His fullness, must have conferred upon you such treasures of sanctity as would prepare you to receive the Son of God in your most pure womb. Mary, Mother of God, I believe that as Mediatrix with Jesus you share also in His sovereign dominion over the universe. Feast, February 2 (Novena, Jan. 24-Feb. 1). I give you my love by consecrating myself entirely to you, in joy and in sorrow, by complete abandonment to the divine will. The angel said to you, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1 28). The Apostles, who had abandoned their Master informed you of your Son's betrayal by Judas and of His brutal capture after His agony. We do not attribute to you the power of producing supernatural grace, even though you are the Mother of God, for this power belongs to God alone. I rejoice with the whole Church because you are our life; you bore Jesus, who is the Way and the Truth and the Life and who was to restore to mankind that supernatural life which had been lost. Though it is impossible for me to form any idea of the thoughts that flooded your mind and heart, I beg you to give me at least a spark of that fervor of divine love that burned in your soul. It is but a symbol of the endless victories which you are to win over him to the last day. Whatever of sanctity, of dignity, of merit, of grace and of glory, that we can imagine, all is in you. Mary, My Mother, I firmly believe that the saints and blessed in Heaven can aid us by interceding for us with God. Intense love for the Infinite God withdrew your soul from this earthly life, and caused you death. Even before His coming your Heart was filled with love for those whom later He was to love with a tremendous love. I believe with the Church that from the great treasury of graces that Jesus has merited for us, nothing comes to us, by the will of God. Have pity on the sinners of the world. "And, therefore, the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God." We join you, Queen of the Holy Rosary, in praying for peace in the world. Each time Jesus becomes present in the hands of the priest, the Life given to us by the words of consecration comes originally from. If unfortunately I should lose this life by sin, you can bring me back to supernatural life. Monday, September 15, 2014. I want to turn to you in all my pressing needs and difficulties as to a most sure refuge, imploring the help of your protection, choosing you as my advocate, whole-heartedly entrusting my cause to you who are the Consoler of the Afflicted. Love and Peace, may be spread among men. This Body, given to us at Christmas and immolated on Good Friday, was flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone. It affords Jesus the joy of rewarding you who, with Him, suffered so much for men. Feast, September 15 (Novena, September 6-14) (See the Feast of Seven Sorrows, Friday of Passion Week), Feast, September 24 (Triduum, September 21-23). 3. Mary, My Mother, I realize that I have not always corresponded faithfully with these graces. All these souls were given to you by Jesus on the crossthey are your children. His mother named him after the great St. Francis of Assisi. Who would not love you and endeavor to imitate you, most beautiful and immaculate Mother of God? Before you were crowned Queen of Heaven you became the Mother of Sorrows. I long for your complete dominion over meover my body, my soul, my senses, over all that I am and have. Your life, like that of your Divine Son, was a daily crucifixion and martyrdom, but on Good Friday that crucifixion reached its climax. You love us as a mother loves her children. 2. I have every reason to rejoice, for as the Mother of Jesus and my Mother you are my hope of salvation. In your heart and life the Eucharist took the place of His former presence in the flesh. We take a look at the story behind the indigenous peasant who came across the Patron of the Americas, and how he fought for her message to be heard. Because you freely consented to become the Mother of God, you experienced mentally all the bitterness of your Son's Passion and death. You are indeed our Mother, and a mother can never forget her children. May your glorious example be imitated by countless youths and maidens who will give themselves to the Lord to carry on His work throughout the world. There is no sinner so spoiled and so mired in vice that you would deny him aid. By your Motherhood you acquired a mother's power over your Divine Son, and you saw yourself raised above all the angels and saints. The climax of that sorrow came when the innocent Victim for the sins of mankind was given, dead, into your arms. You consented to be the Mother of the Redeemer at the Annunciation, and thus you were willing to share in the sufferings of the Redeemer. This is truly your spirit, as you expressed it at the Visitation: "Behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed: because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name" (Luke 1, 48). Thus you will be for me not only the Health of the Sick but also the Gate of Heaven. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," says the psalmist (110, 10). You embrace the universe in the realm of your love and enrich it through your unfailing intercession. There is nothing you want more than to give them to me, since you are even more anxious to save my soul than I am, for you know better than anyone else the price your Son has paid for it and the precious worth of each grace He so graciously offers to me through you. Only you could love God as your Son; only you could love your Son as God. Though it was out of sheer goodness that God decreed to give us His very Son in the Blessed Sacrament, I believe that your prayers had much to do with the carrying out of that plan; for you, too, must have prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread." In the past you have expressed your willingness to help and made your requests in your personal apparitions. DEC. 12 OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE. How God has loved you by making you His Mother! 1. Eternity is real; Heaven is eternal happiness, the final reward for loyalty to God. You are the spouse of the Holy Spirit because according to the gospel and the teaching of the Apostles' Creed, you conceived of the Holy Spirit the Son of God, made man. He did so through your hands when you presented Him in the Temple, and in union with Him you offered yourself to the Father on Calvary. What a beautiful example for parents to imitate! 16, 26). Help me to perform all my actions in youto be entirely dependent upon you, taking your point of view, doing all things as you did them for God's honor and glory. You heard the mob, led by the chief priests clamoring for His crucifixion. In the temple, you returned to Him His gift by consecrating your Child to His honor and glory. But in you they saw a soul whose sanctity surpassed that of angels and of men, a soul which would glorify God more perfectly than any other creature ever had glorified Him, or ever would glorify Him. You humbled yourself so deeply because you knew that of and by yourself you were nothing and had nothing. When God decreed the incarnation of the Word, His very own Son, through you alone, you had a place in the same plan as Jesus. Mary, My Mother, may the thought of your tenderness and charity increase my confidence in you and make me look up to you in all the dangers that surround me in life. 3. Mary, My Mother, through your prayers may I be blessed with a keen understanding of the ways of God. Let me never esteem worldly wisdom so highly as to pay but little attention to the principles of that wisdom which is from heaven and which alone can make me truly wise and happy. Your motherly interest in my needs and the salvation of my soul encourage me to make a prompt appeal to you in all my needs and dangers. Francis Possenti was born in Assisi. When you learned from the angel that your cousin Elizabeth was with child and needed your help, you set out to care for her. Your intimate union with your Divine Son is the reason for your power with Him. 3. Mary, My Mother, in all infirmities of body and soul, you are a sure refuge and relief. No apostolic act bears fruit without grace. Furthermore, Jesus made the revelation of His divinity and the strengthening of the faith of His disciples the effect of your intercession. He willed that (1) you should be present at each stage of His mortal careerrenewing, continuing, completing what you had done at the Incarnation. Bestow on me gifts from the riches of that fullness. 3. Feast Days of Mary January 1Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God *January 8Our Lady of Prompt SuccorFebruary 2Presentation of the LordFebruary 11Our Lady of LourdesMarch 25AnnunciationMay 13Our Lady of FatimaMay 31VisitationJune 27Our Mother of Perpetual HelpJuly 16Our Lady of Mount CarmelAugust 15Assumption *August 22Queenship of MarySeptember 8Birth of . May I derive all the beneficial results the holy sacraments are to produce in my soul. I need not see you appear, as you did to so many others. This thought wonderfully strengthens my confidence in you, Help of Christians. Apart from your cooperation no grace descends to earth. You abound in divine life for yourself; for us you abound in grace. You expressed this to Saint Bernadette at Lourdes when you said, "I am the Immaculate Conception.". Yet more powerfully still than even your exalted merits does the Precious Blood render God merciful to the sinner, for all comes to us through the Passion and death of Christ, your Son. Our Lady of Good Counsel, I beg you to teach me true heavenly wisdom which was the source of every good deed you performed. Mary, My Mother, your name means Star of the Sea. 2. You have given me life without end, a life of happiness for all eternity, not a created life, but a share in uncreated life, in the very life of God. Mary, My Mother, I wish to offer myself as a sacrifice to God in union with Jesus and through your hands. Jesus had delivered Himself in His Passion to the will of His Father, and before His sacrifice for sinners could be perfect, He had to be forsaken by that Father. As Mother of the Son of God, you are associated with the Father in the generation of His Son. The angels saw a soul which had never been touched by original sin. If to live of the Eucharist and by the Eucharist was the very special spirit of the early Church"And they continued steadfastly in the communion of the breaking of the bread" (Acts 2, 42)it must have been the summary of your last years on earth. St. Brigid of Kildare Feast Day February 1st. Foundation of the Abbey of Dunes, Flanders, in honor of the Blessed Virgin (1128) 3. You were the only one who was exempt from the universal curse that had fallen on the whole human race. At the marriage feast of Cana you asked your Son to perform a miracle for the distressed bride and groom. Because of sanctifying grace infused into your soul, you were from the first moment of your existence most intimately united with God and endowed with the most precious gifts of heaven. 2. Mother Mary - Our Lady of Compassion - Feast Day All Events. You have entered into the highest state of power and glory in Heaven in order that you may help us in our journey through so many dangers to the kingdom of Heaven. we celebrated the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Mary, Mother of God, you are the new Eve. But, because you surpass all other creatures in holiness and in the closeness of your union with Jesus and. After Almighty God and the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, there is no being so great as you. Mary, My Mother, your first presentation to God, made by the hands of your parents, was an offering most acceptable in His sight. Your Heart is also a generous Heart, full of love, abounding in mercy. Mary, My Mother, the word which best summarizes your whole career is "Mother." If I confide my salvation to your loving care and faithfully imitate your virtues, I know you will keep me in your immaculate Heart both now and at the hour of my death. You became the Mother of God and remained a virgin. Its martyrdom began with holy Simeon's prophecy in the temple and was completed on Calvary. More than 130 years ago, Mercy Home was first established as the Mission of Our Lady of Mercy. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the holiest of God's creatures. His triumph over death His Ascension into Heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit. Amen! He forms Himself in me by supernatural principles, which He implants in my mind; by supernatural intentions and meritorious actions. Mary, My Mother, I unite myself with you in the spirit in which you offered yourself as a sacrifice of love during your lifetime. In 2017/18, the most recent full school year, 4.8% of half-day . If the honor of parents descends upon their children, what glory and joy for all of us, your children, to see you raised to such heights of glory! Our Lady of Treves, Italy (746). By your Divine Motherhood you formed the closest bond of union with the adorable Trinity, the privileged Daughter of the Father, the loving Mother of the Son and the immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Filled with motherly compassion, you appealed to Jesus in behalf of your friends. Not for this reason alone did He love you. Mary, My Mother, yours is a queenship of conquest. Your fear arose entirely from your humility, which was disturbed at the sound of praises so far exceeding your own lowly estimate of yourself. You are Queen of the universe, not by force, but by the power of love. To become the Mother of God meant for you a knowledge of and a share in the Passion of Christ that would plunge you into the depths of a sea of lonely desolation.