Greetings in Jesus and Mary... We are at the last dolor which is the Burial of Jesus. With calm heroism our dear Blessed Mother gave up the treasure which lay across her lap. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus carried the Precious Body, while John and Magdalene followed with Mary to the tomb. Now was the time to carry to His tomb the Body of the rejected King. Her Jesus was now going to be placed in a tomb away from Her and guarded by two Roman soldiers. The pain in Her Heart, how She would have wanted to be entombed with Him….just to be near Him but this was not God’s Will. She was left with the relics of three blood stained nails and a blood stained crown of thorns to embrace, reverence and honor. Her seven dolors are truly known to no one but Jesus and Herself….the intensity will never be known to man. This tomb that Jesus’ Body was brought to had belonged to Joseph of Arimathea and had never been used. The tomb of this new Joseph was to be to Him what the arms of the other Joseph had often been before, His resting place for a while, when Mary had to part from Him. Mary enters the tomb and arranges everything. How gently in Her presence had they cared for and placed Him in the tomb. All genuflected in love before departing from Him. Now, on their journey the Cross lies in their path across Calvary. Below lies the guilty city, indistinct in the murky air, with a few restless lights glancing here and there. There were no words of reproach upon Mary’s lips, no look of reproach in Her eyes. She took it all in, from the temple to the outer gateways of the city. Her nature had been shaken to its center but now she is on her way with St. John to his home. If none can truly tell the sorrow that She bore, so none can tell the holiness that She reached. Her last separation is from that which She herself gave Him….. His Sacred Flesh. Man’s sin and the ever-blessed cruelty of divine love have forced the Mother and the Son asunder, although throughout the life of Christ, there had never been a union such as the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart. All holiness is of course simply a correspondence to grace; but with ordinary men, and even with the saints, there is a great deal of failure, of fluctuation, of falling and then rising again, and consequently of imperfect correspondence to grace. Our self-will, temper, disposition and even sin effects our holiness or lack thereof. Our Lady was tainted with none of this….Her progression of grace was perfect. A single grace from God is a marvelous thing. Theologians have said that one Holy Communion is enough to make a saint. The more one corresponds to grace….the more God will give. All our language of Mary is so unworthy of what She truly is and truly is worthy of. What is important for us and is demonstrated in the City of God by Mother Mary Agreda is this: The view of Mary’s holiness is a purely divine work. It is simply God’s own grace realized, and realized to the utmost, by Her correspondence, and it gives us the true height of Her sanctity, but shows the awesomeness of God and what He is capable of giving us …if we correspond and seek it and remain faithful. Of course, no creature has come close to imitating Mary’s sanctity but many have soared very high such as the Apostles, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catharine of Siena, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio and so many many more! It is a sad thing to think that God wants us all saints and yet many die in spiritual infancy even if they die at 80. Some die young such as St. Therese and yet gain such great heights because of their desire and faithfulness. Lessons learned from this dolor…Mary has been an amazing model to us in suffering. She has corresponded perfectly to God’s grace and we must imitate that to the best of our ability. She is the strength example for the entire Church, the Queen of the Apostles and the Mother of all men. May we remain under Her mantle for protection, prayer and guidance. May we thank the Eternal Father for the great gifts of Jesus and Mary. May we remember the sorrow of the seventh dolor when the stone was rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb, after each Benediction when the priest places the Blessed Sacrament back into the tabernacle and locks the door. Let us ask Our Good Mother and Queen to show us the way to perfection and grace….so that we may be pleasing to the Heart of Jesus Who burns with love for us.
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Greetings in Jesus and Mary... The sixth dolor, Jesus Taken Down from the Cross, is the grief Our Lady had to endure after the experience of the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Father Faber states that when the strife is over, then we become conscious of the drain which grief has made upon our strength. It is almost harder to bear than the actual suffering that just occurred. It is like beginning life again at a disadvantage. We seem to be less able to do what it was that we once did. Let us go to the foot of the cross with Mary, John, Mary Magdalene and start with the moments after the death of Our Lord. It was now time for the persecutors to be sure that the three men were actually dead upon their cross. It was customary to break the legs of the crucified to end the suffering and to ensure death. The executioners approached Calvary armed with a strong heavy bar of iron of such weight to speedily fracture the limbs when they are struck. It was a fearful sound for Mary to hear, the dull crashing of the flesh and bone, and the agonizing cries of the sufferers. But when they came to Jesus, they did not break His bones because they saw that He was dead. “These things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, You shall not break a bone of Him.” But there was another Scripture also to be fulfilled, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” One of the soldiers drew near, and drove his spear into our Lord’s right side, across His Body, and through His Sacred Heart. Our Lord then shed His last drops of His Most Precious Blood making this one of Mary’s worst sorrows. Life was gone but He was and is the object of Her Love; an unspeakable love of Mary for the Body of Her Son – Who was God. Because this Heart is the Heart that only throbbed with love for all of mankind….the piercing of our Lord with the spear was to our Blessed Mother by far the most awful sacrilege which was in the power of man to perpetrate upon the earth toward its God. Now they fixed the ladder against the Cross and Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, John, Mary Magdalene all participated in this event with Mary. How all of them must have been filled with unspeakable graces to perform such an act. It is claimed that the angels were present and assisted in the complexity of this event. Such as removing the crown from His head which was all so entangled in His hair and embedded into His skull. From the top of the ladder was Joseph who removed it and passed it to Nicodemus and then to John and then to Mary who received it on Her knees and received it with such devotion as no heart but Hers could hold. Next Joseph loosened the nails and they were each passed to Mary. But a greater grief was yet to come. The Body was detached from the Cross. Mary stretches the clean linen cloth over Her arms and hold them out to receive Her Son. Can She bear the weight? Which weight? The sorrow or the Body? He is tenderly placed upon Her lap and there was not a feature of His Blessed Countenance, not a mark upon His Sacred Flesh, which was not at once a sorrow to Her Most Immaculate Heart. It is claimed that Our Lady told St. Bridget that His arms remained outstretched and that it was difficult to bring them down. What a meditation for us….His arms remained outstretched for us. Mary spent many moments tending toward each and every wound and anointed His Most Sacred Body for burial. How can we even imagine the thoughts and prayers of reparation made by Our Mother when She cleansed and annointed His every wound which was inflicted upon Her Son for our sins. Lessons learned… Father Faber states, "The spirit of reparation is a beautiful spirit, a spirt of human beauty fit to wait on the Humanity of our dearest Lord. It is the true Mary’s lap within our souls, in which the Blessed Sacrament should ever lie, the pure white corporal of our most disinterest love!" Greetings in Jesus and Mary...
The cross reveals man to himself and God to man. When we are experiencing our own sorrows…there is no sight like it. There is something comforting in holding our cross, in kissing our cross, in embracing our cross. And if you are suffering today, as we all are, I advise you to get a good size huggable cross. First have it blessed and each day but especially when you are troubled, pick it up, kiss it and embrace it…maybe even shed tears of joy and sadness. I guarantee you that it is better than paying a therapist a couple hundred dollars! YOU WILL BE COMFORTED! The Cross is the greatest manifestation of the Love of God! Many saints have spent hours before the cross, in contemplation of the love of Jesus. I hate to bring up the great Second Vatican Council again which was perpetrated by the Freemasons upon us; but, since that time, we have THROWN AWAY THE CROSS…REJECTED IT….STOMPED ON IT…DENIED IT. How many churches took down the crucifix and put up the Resurrected Jesus. Yes, He resurrected but what happened to His demonstration of the most intense love … the Crucifixion? Look where we are now since this rejection of His Love! No talk of sin, mortifications, penance, suffering….life is just filled with a bunch of happy clappy thoughts and experiences. The rejection of the cross has led to the destruction of the world. We are now in WW3 and do not even know it because it is a different kind of warfare. We are so satiated with pleasure pleasure pleasure that many will go down in this war probably caught in some kind of act of sin. People will not even understand it. Many are so lost, so misguided, so deceived by the enemy. We belong to God, therefore, it is just to treat Him like our God and give Him our love. We are to love Him with our WHOLE heart, mind and soul. Some think that is SLAVERY. A holy slavery that leads to peace, joy and love. If one chooses their own will over God’s….it will be a slavery to sin which leads to death, despair and destruction. There is a choice of only two sides. Well…lets get to the dolor. The above paragraph was not in vain. We will now mention some of the horrors that Jesus endured for those sins and so many more. The thoughts of Mary at His feet as He was nailed to the cross is mind-blowing. How can anyone call themselves “Christian” and not understand what that Mother endured…. and then to think She is not deserving of our love? Only God knew and knows what was in the Heart of Mary at the time of the blows and how each blow was a fresh martyrdom. To see the many atrocities especially as they sat upon His chest to pull the left arm out of place to fit where the hole was on the cross. The thoughts of Our Queen and Mother had to be on the past expressions of His love…of the healings He did with those hands, the places where His feet had trodden to be with the sick, deaf, and mute. And when they finally nailed Him, the cross was brought up and dropped into the hole for all to see their Lord and Master. Blessed be the Most Holy Trinity for the miracles of grace wrought in Mary at that time to see such suffering! Most of us do not know what crosses we will meet today; sometimes we cannot guess. But we know that if we meet Jesus we will meet a cross. Some men meet Him and turn away. Some see Him far off, and turn down another road. Some come close up, and leap out of the way as if He were going to harm them. Some pass by and pretend they do not know Him. During these past centuries, He has had very few honest greetings. Some follow Him and in sullenness of servile obedience, they dray their cross. Few kneel down and take the cross off His back and shoulder it with love and walk by His side, singing psalms with Him, saying, stay with us, because it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. We can only carry our crosses one way…heavenward. They keep our faces in that direction. As Father Faber says, “They push us uphill like the needle on the compass always pointing up.” Lesson to learn from the Fifth Dolor – The Crucifixion Jesus and Mary are going one way…the road to Heaven. Yet, the road that they were traveling led to Calvary. No one’s face is toward Heaven when it is not toward Calvary. At the next turn of the road in life…there is usually a sorrow. How are we to look at that sorrow? Will we unite it to the cross of Christ or will we drag it….or worse…reject it. Let us do now what Mary did then…look at Him who is on the road before us, and see how the beauty of the Sacred Heart is the burning furnace of Eternal Love drawing us ever closer to Him until we are finally Home! Greetings in Jesus and Mary... We now come to the sorrows in the Immaculate Heart which She had pondered upon since the prophecy of St. Simeon. We are now here. Her life has been an endless heavenward ascent as She always unites her Will to God’s. She is always increasing in holiness because she is always increasing in love. Stronger sanctity can carry heavier crosses…because we become united to God Who can supply all our needs and make our burdens light. It is this meeting of Jesus and Mary as He carries His Cross on the Way to Calvary that we meditate upon here. This was a difficult sorrow – different from the previous. She saw Him now in the hands of others who could touch Him and come near Him, while She was kept far off. How She longed to wipe the blood from His face with Her veil, to part His tangled hair, to remove that cruel crown, to lift the Cross off His shoulders and see whether her broken heart would not give her superhuman strength to carry it for Him! Oh how Her motherly Heart was so moved, stirred and broken at this present position. When we meditate upon these sufferings of our Good Mother and Queen and upon the love that Jesus had in carrying that Cross for our sins, we cannot shrink from the contemplation of those real realities which the Son of God condescended to undergo for us, and into the horrors of which our own sins drove Him. Many saints claim that this type of contemplation is essential for truly penitent love. Think of just the one thought of how Mary was to walk the streets over Her own Son’s Precious Blood. That thought alone could make a two hour meditation of prayers and lamentations. No heart but Hers was touched at seeing this Precious Blood, all over the streets, splashed on the steps, under people’s sandals, even on the legs of the horses. SUCH SACRILEGE – SUCH HORROR! It is written in the City of God by Mother Mary Agreda that the angels, after the Crucifixion, went through the streets and collected all the Precious Blood from the stones, sand, streets and deposited it in a holy place. We can only imagine at the request of Our Lady….but again….Her Will was perfectly united to the Will of God....therefore …it was the Will of the Father for this to be done and rightly so! As we remember in the Passion movie, the holy woman Mary Magdalene and Our Lady wiped up the blood of Jesus at the pillar after the scourging. This was a great gesture of Mel Gibson to put this in the movie for it had to be so -- it was the most tender moment for me to shed tears....Oh Precious Blood of my Saviour! Again, we must always remember that the greatest sorrow of Our Lady was not so much that He suffered for our sins in this horrific manner BUT --- THAT MANY SOULS WOULD NEVER CARE---OR WORSE---MOCK HIM OR EVEN HATE HIM. This brought the most intense sorrow and we must remember that because She was united in the most perfect way to God….it WAS THE SORROW OF JESUS AS WELL. His very sufferings were Her sufferings and seeing Her suffer made Him suffer all the more! They were exchanging Hearts always but especially at this dolor…each looked into the other’s eyes and wept! Wept not for this suffering but more for the reason I just mentioned. Can we deny that She is the Co-Remptorix? She did not suffer in the same way but in a different way and neither was less intense. This is what makes this dolor so sorrowful. She had to walk and stand and listen to the jeers side by side with those who are perpetrating this evil upon Her Son. Yet, as hard as that is, She has the love of God in Her soul for these poor wretched sinners and would also say….Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Lesson for us to learn in this dolor….We ourselves are a part of our Mother’s dolors, because we were an actual part of our Savior’s Passion. Yet, we must always know that the Love of the Sacred Heart which burns for each one of us is burning also in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She, as a good Mother, wants us to repent and sin no more. She wants us to contemplate the Passion of Our Lord to appreciate and give thanksgiving to Him for all that He endured for each one of us. If we die without doing that…God have mercy on us! Greetings in Jesus and Mary...
The Mother without the Child! This is one of the greatest mysteries of the entire life of Jesus. Five years had passed since the return from Egypt and Jesus was 12 years old. In that year, as the Gospel narrative tells us, He went up to Jerusalem at the Pasch, with Mary and Joseph, and according to the tradition, He went on foot. Even though His Calvary was far off in years, it was keen to the Heart of Mary. Each moment with Jesus was to Her so infinitely more precious than the moment before, which caused Her love for Him to grow and intensify. As a child grows, all the things that become more apparent such as His mannerisms, His character, His gait when He walks, etc., all become noticed and valued by the Mother. Who can doubt that there was a spiritual beauty shining in all that He did; a heavenly beauty over everything which would take place every hour and how daily they would bring new surprises to the Mother’s Heart. Now they reached Jerusalem before the beginning of the seven days of unleavened bread; and during that time, they made their devotions in the temple, visited the poor and the sick, and performed the other customary works of mercy. When Mary and Joseph knelt together in the temple, all created sanctity, such as had shone in the angels and saints, was pale in comparison to the prayers of Mary and Joseph. How the mystery deepens when we think of the Child Jesus at the age of twelve kneeling in their midst. A Son of David, “greater than Solomon” older than the day of Abraham, was among the crowds, One who could destroy the temple and build it up again in three days --- a Boy of twelve. When it finally came time to leave, the women to whose caravan Mary belonged were mustered at their proper gate, Jesus was not there. But children might go either with the father or the mother. Jesus was not with Her but it filled her Heart with joy to think that He was filling Joseph’s heart with love and joy. Two evenings had gone before the bands of men and women had met at the accustomed halting-place. Joseph was waiting for Mary but Jesus was not with him and Mary’s Heart sank within Her. They felt suddenly alone, alone amidst the crowd. What could it mean? Jesus was gone. There were many sorrows on earth that night, but there were none like Hers. In the silent dark night, Mary and Joseph were treading the road again to the Holy City. Their feet were sore and wary. Their hearts were sorer and more weary. The darkness in Mary’s spirit was deeper than the darkness on the hills. It had been a weary day and neither Joseph nor Mary had broken their fast all day. They were hungry to find Jesus. A broken heart does not think of sleep or food. They finally came to the eastern gate of the Temple and went in. Close to this gate was a spacious room, a sort of Academy, in which the interpreters of the law sat, and answered questions, and resolved doubts, and moderated in disputations. Mary’s ear caught the sound of Jesus' voice in which it was impossible to be mistaken. She came forward and said to Him, "Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing". …He saw Her sorrow but He had never been away from Her. He had been lying in Her Heart the whole while giving Her the strength and graces She needed. He said to them, “How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? Poor Mother! Could She have done otherwise? His look and tone would always be in Her Heart to ponder. Yet, “They understood not the word that He had spoken unto them.” “And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them; and His Mother kept all these words in Her Heart.” In this third dolor, She had lost Jesus, and She knew not why, nor where He was, nor what He might be suffering. She was plunged into a dense spiritual darkness, and God seemed altogether to have abandoned Her. Hence, the torture of Her Heart never was worse, not even at the burial because at the burial – He was to suffer no more. We must have Mary’s Heart to feel Mary’s sorrow. The lesson learned in this dolor is: The greatest joy we can experience on this earth is to find Jesus. If anything else should console us outside of Jesus it would be the saddest of things for He is our Lord and Saviour. Greetings in Jesus and Mary... There are many lessons to learn from the Second Dolor…The biggest lesson is that whatever and wherever we are, we always have Jesus with us. I had a full article on this Dolor and as I went to insert my picture for it…in the computer’s circular thinking stage…it all disappeared. Poof….gone. Therefore now, this will be brief….Father Faber in his book, "At the Foot of the Cross" presents to us three different objects of devotion: The Flight, with all its fears, its hardships, and fatigues, The Sojourn, with its sense of exile and its companionship with the idolaters, and Mary's desire for the salvation of these people. Then The Return with those peculiarities which followed from the increased age and size of Jesus and the sorrows in Her Immaculate Heart now from two dolors. All of these thoughts bring fresh thoughts for our meditation on this dolor. Jesus, Mary and Joseph had many sufferings in the flight, their stay and their return to Nazareth. I will not rewrite what I had written a few minutes ago but the most important part for me is the return home. As they traveled for so long, it had to be in the mind of Mary, the message of the first dolor. She had just suffered the grief of the Innocents in Her Immaculate Heart. Pondering the sorrow of those mothers and the loss of their sons and the shedding of their blood ….Mary with each step taken in the direction of Calvary would now ponder the one day She would see Her own Son Jesus sacrificed for the souls of the entire world in the most cruel death. Each step was a surrender to the perfect Will of God. (How can I be upset that my original article being lost...maybe this was all God wanted me to say! ) Mother of Sorrows, pray for us! Greetings in Jesus and Mary... Sorry this is a bit late in the day.. We had a couple of power outages with storms today. I hope we are finally up now! First, we need to honor Our Blessed Mother's birthday and thank Her for all that She has given to us! She wants us to thank the Eternal Father first and foremost...It is because of Him that we even have this amazing Mother and Her Divine Son Jesus! Blessed be the Eternal Father...now and forever! I will hopefully write each day on the seven dolors of our Lady during this Novena. I have been reading from Father Frederick Faber's book...At The Foot of the Cross. This is one of my favorite saints...even though he was never canonized. He certainly should be. I fell in love with his writings a number of years ago and sought his books online through various used book stores and have a collection of his first prints from England. I treat them somewhat like relics. He is such a blessing to the world. He died at 49 years of age and wrote so much that it puts us all to shame as to how he utilized his years so well. Well - I will begin and all that I will write will be paraphrased from his book..."At the Foot of the Cross". He begins the 33 page chapter on the First Dolor by explaining the holiness of St. Simeon and the faithfulness of God in allowing him to see the Messiah before he left this earth. He also describes Anna as being careful that the least things which the law ordained should be obediently fulfilled. His description of how Our Lady gained so much more grace and wisdom from the prophecy of this saint is eye opening. He talks of an inexplicable change over Mary when this prophecy was told to her: "Behold, this Child is set for the fall, and the resurrection of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed." He states: "Suddenly out of the sunshine of Bethlehem, She found herself in the heart of the eclipse on Calvary; and she was calm as before, with unastonished dignity, with the tranquility of unutterable love, with the strength of divinest union, and with the sword right through her broken heart, which should remain there until Jesus should draw it out of the wound and she would bleed to death with love." (Father Faber was a poet and wrote poetry as well as hymns) He talks about how Joseph and Mary just offered to God a gift equal to Himself. There never had been such an offering made to Him since creation began! Mysterious fruit of the greatness of a mother's love! Mary knew that giving Jesus back to God was giving Him away from herself. Her reward was immediate: it was an unutterable lifelong sorrow. One of God's mysteries....earthly sorrows are the roots of heavenly joys. A cross is a crown begun. Suffering has always been dear to the saints and She is the Queen of these saints. Beginning with Her...they have His tastes, His inclinations, they thirst for suffering because there is something in it which is favorable to union with God for the good of souls. Fr. Faber says that suffering puts out the deceitful lights of the world; and darkness is the light by which we can most spiritually discern God. (Also found in St. John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul) God proportioned Her cross to Her powers of bearing it. Now there would be no hiding place in Her soul...it was penetrated with the bitterness of this prophecy. Every look at Jesus, every movement that He made, every word that He uttered....all quickened the sorrow within in. The Passion became an inevitable vision to Her. It was always before Her eyes. She belonged to sorrow. The beauty of Jesus was hourly driving Simeon's sword in. But She was so full of grace that She bore this grief interiorly and could perform Her daily duties and be cheerful to all around Her. Our good Mother and Queen was heart broken almost from the start! Mary was created perfect and therefore She would never have abandoned this sorrow as we all have done to our crosses. She knew that He belonged to sinners. What an office for a mother to hold. Simeon had spoken of contradictions. What are these contradictions? The whole world would not be at His feet...even after witnessing His death on the cross...they would not follow Him. Many sinners would not be converted and choose to be lost rather than Love Him. Who could be rude to Him Who was Truth, Beauty, Wisdom and Love? Who could contradict His Truth? All this was known to the Heart of Mary which was now pierced with this knowledge. Is He to drive them from Himself by the very brightness of His Light, by the very heavenliness of His Beauty? She became the Mother of the sinners because She was the Mother of the Savior and She thirsted for their souls to please Her Divine Son. Is it no wonder that anyone who comes to Her assistance is never left unaided? The countless multitudes of those who were to be saved were the nearest approach to an alleviation of Her inconsolable sorrow. We will conclude with Father Faber's thoughts on Mary's three graces that She exercised in a heroic degree in this first dolor which we can meditate on for ourselves: The first was Her practical acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God which is the fundamental idea of all worship. God is Master. Second, Mary entered perfectly into all the disposition of God about Jesus, Herself and us. (We must turn from ourselves and focus on God and His point of view ... we can not do things according to our point of view) The Third disposition is Her generosity in the acceptance of this dolor. Our lesson is to learn from Mary to accept sufferings, keep close to God in prayer to discern our sufferings and offer them to God for the sins of the world. God allows them...seek Him, embrace Him and unite yourself to Him through your crosses. Finally...a quote from Bishop Sheen's book..."Light Your Lamps"... "There yet remains to inscribe in our hearts a perpetual love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that will express itself daily in such tokens of virtue and love, that on the last day...we shall hear Him say the most consoling words of all, and the pledge of our eternal salvation: "I've heard My Mother speak of you." Greetings in Jesus and Mary: Today starts the Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows. This is a critical Novena to pray and meditate on as we enter into some of the most darkest days of history. I pray we will see the Reign of the Immaculate Heart and an era of peace but at the moment it looks pretty dark in the world. She told us in Quito Ecuador as Our Lady of Good Success that when it looks totally hopeless in the world... know that this is when I step forward. I would say we are getting close! The devil is having a hayday with his cohorts. I know sin was always with us and to a great degree most of it hidden; but today, it is flowing in the streets and is very much being done right before our eyes with no justice in sight. There is so much to pray for in this Novena, for Church leaders, for the strength of our priests, for the holiness in our families, for justice in our countries with crimes against all of humanity. What we are seeing unfolding is so much worse that WWII. They are planning (and already have) concentration camps. Are we ready? Are we ready to be separated from family members not knowing where they are going or what is being done to them? (link below from the CDC - the same CDC that is issuing all of these draconian mandates that are causing more death than life) Let us meditate on the Sorrows of Our Lady and beg Her for the graces we need to endure what is to come our way very soon. It will only be by God's grace that we get through this. I will post daily a meditation on each of Her dolors for each day of this Novena. We will try to come to understand, know and love God through His Will of allowing these dolors to be for Our Blessed Mother. We find that the more we know, the more we love, and therefore we inquire into many things. Why did God permit the dolors of His Mother, whom He loved so unspeakably, who was sinless and had nothing in herself to expiate by penance, and whose tears were in no way needful to the Precious Blood which was of its sole self the redemption of the world? We find that it was because of His love for Her. What can love give which is better than self? The same law which lies round Jesus must also lie round her (and us). The law is a law of suffering, of sacrifice, of expiation, of abjection almost touching on annihilation, Was Mary to be uncrowned? This is a reality of our Catholic Faith that we have run away from...we want Jesus without a cross. We must get back to the fact that the mystery of suffering brings life, love and redemption. BUT IT MUST BE DONE IN UNION WITH THE LOVE THAT JESUS HAS FOR SOULS. Suffering on its own is nothing. This is why it is critical that we study her dolors these nine days to discover the mystery of suffering and how when it is given to us by the Father (as it will be very soon) we must embrace it and help others to see that this is fruitful to repair for the endless crimes and bring people back to God. The augmentation of Mary's merits is another reason of her dolors; suffering mingled with the love for God... gains merit. They were permitted by God so that He might receive from Her more glory than from any other creature whatsoever----also excepting the created nature of our Blessed Lord! Through of Her Immaculate Conception, She supplied for all that the saints owed Him for His Passion but could never pay! Now we think of Her as OUR OWN MOTHER! What suffering is She suffering now with each and every child that God has given to Her as their spiritual Mother. It is beyond our understanding all that Our Good Mother and Queen endures for the love of God and the love of souls! It was His Will that Her Compassion should lie close by His Passion and without it - would be different. One of the greatest sorrows of our Mother expressed by the saints and written in the City of God by Mother Mary Agreda is this: IT IS THE FORESEEN INGRATITUTE OF THE FAITHFUL FOR THE PASSION OF OUR DEAREST LORD! There was St. John, St. Mary Magdalen and Herself at the Foot of the Cross....where were the rest? Are we at the Foot of the Cross? May we place ourselves in the Immaculate Heart of Mary for safety knowing that whatever we are to endure....we can offer in reparation and in expiation ...with the hope of a life eternal in Heaven with Jesus and Mary. |
AuthorBernadette Porter is a Traditional Catholic, a wife of 42 years with 6 adult home-schooled children and 6 grandchildren. A sincere devotion to Mary, the Mother of God leads me to want to share "The Church's best kept secret" - Mary! Archives
March 2023
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