Hello Everyone:
I just posted the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary on this website and an article under Talks. I will try to post info on some of the Prayers and Canticles found in the Little Office - starting with the Magnificat which is a beautiful prayer of Our Lady's humility. I chose the above picture to show that it is the cross that leads to this humility. Beautiful image!

St. Thomas calls Scripture “the Heart of Christ”. It reveals His Heart. Mary saw God in every sacred word that reached Her. The same Holy Spirit that overshadowed Her is found in Sacred Scriptures. In the Word, She found life and unbroken union with God.

The first glorious re-creation of the Word was Mary who was blessed in how She heard and kept it. Like a seed planted in Her soul it grew like the grain of a mustard-seed to be the greatest of all living things; and when the time came for Her to say “be it done unto Me according to Thy Word”, She had already conceived the Word in Her Heart – what a beautiful meditation! What is more – Her burning desire of Her soul is to form Her Son in us! May the Eternal Father be praised for giving us this amazing Mother and Queen of all souls!

The way to become all that God wants us to be is – Mary’s Way. Virtue can grow from no seed that is not the Word of God planted in our souls, covered with the warm love of our hearts and watered by the living water of His Divine Grace. If we want to grow into Christ and live in Him, we must read and meditate upon His Word as Mary did. Mary was so intent upon the Word that it opened the depths of Her soul to God.
Let us break down the Magnifcat and examine its meaning:

My soul magnifies the Lord.

Mary see nothing great but the Lord, and her proximity to the Lord is the cause of her own greatness.

And My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Mary’s whole life finds its reason and joy in her Divine Son.

Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; for, behold,
Henceforth all generations shall call Me blessed.

By acting so perfectly as the servant of God, Mary merited the title of Mother of God – and this title brings upon Her the everlasting praise of all the faithful.

Because He Who is mighty has done great things for Me, and holy is His name.

Humility is truth, and the realization that the only exaltation that means anything at all is exaltation by God Himself.

And for generation upon generation is His mercy, to those who fear Him.

Mary is the channel by which the most precious mercies of Christ are poured into the hearts of the faithful.

He has shown might with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

The strength of Christ is shown in the mystery of the Cross, which is the sign of salvation to the humble and an obstacle of destruction to the proud.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.

Pride will always be a barrier to the graces of God, for only to the humble does He grant His favor.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

Through the instrumentality of our Blessed Mother, He, the Giver of all good gifts, was born into this world and only those who hunger and thirst after Him shall receive their fill.

He has given help to Israel, His servant mindful of His mercy. Even as He spoke to our fathers – to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Our Blessed Mother speaks here for all the faithful, for as Abraham was the father of believers, Mary is the Mother of all those who have accepted Christ, and She ever obtains Christ’s greatest mercies for those who remain faithful to Her.
 
The Magnificat is more than a prayer of praise. It also reminds us about the essential link between humility and holiness. May we live in imitation of Mary and spurn the superficial and transient joys of this earth that only lead men to pride. May we strive and long for the joys of Heaven which the earth despises and pray to Our Lady for the gift of humility. May we have a deep horror for sin and long for the salvation of our soul and those of the whole world. Our greatness of soul will be measured by the standard of love and sacrifice that we exhibit for Jesus through Mary, since without Him – we are nothing.

Hello Everyone:
Today is my brother Joe's birthday and his wife, Sue's birthday two days from now! Please say a Hail Mary for them and their family. Thank you all so much!! I write this article for them, their family and all of us --that we may treasure the one gift worth seeking ---- Jesus!

We are only a couple days passed the visit of the Magi to the Holy Family. This article is about the response of Mary upon receiving these gifts.  The actions of poverty and humility of Our Lady are examples that we can all learn from.

At the end of each chapter in the book “City of God”, Our Lady gives instructions to Mother Mary Agreda. She mentions that She has the grace to understand what a low value the Most High esteems earthly blessings and riches. Therefore, in Her holy liberty of spirit, She felt herself troubled and inconvenienced by the possession of the treasures that the Three Kings offered to Her most Holy Son. She asked St. Joseph to dispose of them and He divided them among the Temple and the poor.  She warns us weak creatures that the goods of the earth, material possessions or goods of honor bring covetousness, ambition and vain ostentation. She says that nothing can be trusted to infected human nature; for it always seeks after more than it possesses, it never says enough, and the more it receives – the greater thirst it has for even more. (City of God, The Incarnation, p. 494)

She tells Mother Mary Agreda (and us) that it is to the intimate and frequent prayers with the Lord by unceasing love, praise and reverence, that She wishes us to attend to most of all. She says that without great care in this regard, the inferior parts will inevitably weigh down the soul, derange and upset it, divert and cast it down, causing it to lose the vision of the highest Good. (Wis. 9, 15) If we do not engage in loving prayer with the Lord, the deceits of the enemy will take hold and the soul will lose sight of God. On this account, the enemy makes great efforts to draw our attention toward himself, knowing that the punishment of listening to him will be the concealment of the object of its love from the soul. (Cant. 5, 6) As soon as the soul carelessly ignores the beauty of the Lord, it enters upon the byways of neglect and is deprived of the divine sweetness (Cant. 1, 7) When afterwards the soul, having with sorrow experienced the evils of such inadvertence, wishes to return to seek Him, it does not always find or recover Him (Cant. 3, 1, 2) As the demon, who deceived it, then presents other delights so vile and unlike those to which the soul has been accustomed interiorly, new cause of sadness, disturbance, dejection, lukewarmness and dissatisfaction arises and its whole interior is filled with dangerous confusion.

She instructs us that we must not be negligent or tardy in believing the favors of the Lord. That we must be prudent in our sincerity and constant in keeping up the fire of the sanctuary of our soul. (Lev 6, 12) without ever losing sight for a moment of that same Object, which Mary always attended to with all the powers of Her soul and all Her faculties. She knows that this is a tall order for our weak fragile souls – to live in imitation of Her, but we are to strive for this perfection and always keep the presence of God before our minds and hearts. If the Almighty calls and invites all men to the highest perfection by following Him, consider what we are obliged to do, since we have been drawn toward the Most High by such a generous and powerful influence of His right hand. (Matt. 11, 28; Cant. 1, 3)

 May we keep these words of instruction always in our hearts and prize only Jesus because He is the only thing that matters and we will leave this world and all of its possessions behind. Let us seek Jesus with determined determination as St. Teresa of Jesus tells us and know that with God all things are possible.

Mary, Mother of God --- pray for all of us!!
God bless Joe and his family today and always!!

Blessed New Year to all!!

Today is the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus. In the New Calendar it is the Feast of the Mother of God.  Being that this is a Traditional site, we will focus on the Traditional calendar but here I would like to give reverence to the tenderness and love of the Mother of God on this day - as stated in my article under Talks for this day.

If we only knew the tenderness and love of Our dearest Mother Mary. Such a meditation for today. She longed for Jesus to not suffer the first opportunity to shed His Most Precious Blood. This is so tender. What Mother upon looking at their sweet baby wants to endure all the hardships and pain that that baby may have to endure. She did all in Her power to make this as comfortable as possible for Her Divine Son. She held Him in Her arms and became the first altar of our Savior. When She was pregnant, She was the first tabernacle. How can any human being not give this special Mother honor and love! She is so deserving but yet we think little of Her or worse - many scorn Her and ridicule Her. May we make reparation!

As stated in my talk which is taken from "The City of God" by Mother Mary Agreda, the tears shed by Jesus were not because of the physical pain but because of the supernatural pain in His most Sacred Heart for the souls that would reject His love. HOW VERY VERY SAD! What a meditation for all of us - ALWAYS!! His message to St. Margaret Mary of the Sacred Heart was the same - He was terribly sad over the fact that the majority of souls give Him nothing but contempt and coldness in return for so great a love.

May we spend this new year - offering prayers of reparation and intense love to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary for all the lack of love and devotion that the majority of souls are guilty of. May we be called to return love for love.