Christ the King

Nov 24th Solemnity of Christ the King

The Feast of Christ the King is celebrated on November 24. This was created by Pope Pius XI in 1925 because people were living as if Jesus Christ didn't exist. The feast proclaims how Jesus Christ is Royalty above people, communities, nations, and governments. Christ's kingdom in heaven is for everybody who wants to be with Him; and it's endless.


The feast establishes the titles for Christ's royalty over men: 

1) Christ is God and holds high power over everything; 
2) Christ is our Redeemer, He made us His by His blood and now we belong to Him; 
3) Christ is Head of the Church, 4) God bestowed upon Christ the nations of the world as His special possession and dominion

~Today more than ever this world lives as if Jesus was just 'someone' in history rather than the King of everything, including ETERNITY! Many can't even see beyond this world to realize that there truly IS another life and that it is WITHOUT END for those who love our glorious Triune God.  

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who love Him."

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On November twenty-first the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast finds its origins as early as the second century according to apocryphal source, the Protoevangelium or the book of James. This feast was already commemorated in the East by the sixth century. Pope Gregory XI heard of this feast being kept in Greece in 1372 and introduced it at Avigon. In 1585 Pope Sixtus extended to the universal Church. This feast refers to Our Lady's presentation at the temple in Jerusalem as a small child. When she was only three years old, the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. There she was taught, lived with other little girls and was cared for by pious women. The Blessed Virgin was happy to begin serving God in the Temple. Even as a little Child Mary's life was centered on God. She studied the Sacred Scriptures and awaited and hope for the coming of the Messiah. On this feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary let us ask Our Lady to help us to consecrate ourselves entirely to God.

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"Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a Child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor." --St. Germanus, homily on the Presentation of the Mother of God

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe - Guadalupe, Mexico (1531)
Patroness of the Americas
Feast Day in the USA - December 12th

The opening of the New World brought with it both fortune-seekers and religious preachers desiring to convert the native populations to the Christian faith. One of the converts was a poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego. On one of his trips to the chapel, Juan was walking through the Tepayac hill country in central Mexico. Near Tepayac Hill he encountered a beautiful woman surrounded by a ball of light as bright as the sun. Speaking in his native tongue, the beautiful lady identified herself:
"My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard." 

Juan, age 57, and who had never been to Tenochtitlan, nonetheless immediately responded to Mary's request. He went to the palace of the Bishop-elect Fray Juan de Zumarraga and requested to meet immediately with the bishop. The bishop's servants, who were suspicious of the rural peasant, kept him waiting for hours. The bishop-elect told Juan that he would consider the request of the Lady and told him he could visit him again if he so desired. Juan was disappointed by the bishop's response and felt himself unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop. He returned to the hill where he had first met Mary and found her there waiting for him. Imploring her to send someone else, she responded:
"My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen."
She then told him to return the next day to the bishop and repeat the request. On Sunday, after again waiting for hours, Juan met with the bishop who, on re-hearing his story, asked him to ask the Lady to provide a sign as a proof of who she was. Juan dutifully returned to the hill and told Mary, who was again waiting for him there, of the bishop's request. Mary responded:
"My little son, am I not your Mother? Do not fear. The Bishop shall have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my little son."

Unfortunately, Juan was not able to return to the hill the next day. His uncle had become mortally ill and Juan stayed with him to care for him. After two days, with his uncle near death, Juan left his side to find a priest. Juan had to pass Tepayac Hill to get to the priest. As he was passing, he found Mary waiting for him. She spoke: "Do not be distressed, my littlest son. Am I not here with you who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your uncle will not die at this time. There is no reason for you to engage a priest, for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to me."

While it was freezing on the hillside, Juan obeyed Mary's instructions and went to the top of the hill where he found a full bloom of Castilian roses. Removing his tilma, a poncho-like cape made of cactus fiber, he cut the roses and carried them back to Mary. She rearranged the roses and told him: "My little son, this is the sign I am sending to the Bishop. Tell him that with this sign I request his greatest efforts to complete the church I desire in this place. Show these flowers to no one else but the Bishop. You are my trusted ambassador. This time the Bishop will believe all you tell him."

At the palace, Juan once again came before the bishop and several of his advisers. He told the bishop his story and opened the tilma letting the flowers fall out. But it wasn't the beautiful roses that caused the bishop and his advisers to fall to their knees; for there, on the tilma, was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary precisely as Juan had described her. The next day, after showing the Tilma at the Cathedral, Juan took the bishop to the spot where he first met Mary. He then returned to his village where he met his uncle who was completely cured. His uncle told him he had met a young woman, surrounded by a soft light, who told him that she had just sent his nephew to Tenochtitlan with a picture of herself. She told his uncle: "Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe".

It's believed that the word Guadalupe was actually a Spanish mis-translation of the local Aztec dialect. The word that Mary probably used was Coatlallope which means "one who treads on snakes"! Within six years of this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. The tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer - she is pregnant with her Divine Son. Since the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother of God, it has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including smoke from fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours and, in 1921, a bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar under it. There was also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when the bomb exploded, the cross was twisted out of shape, the marble altar rail was heavily damaged and the tilma was ... untouched! Indeed, no one was injured in the Church despite the damage that occurred to a lae part of the altar structure.

In 1977, the tilma was examined using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere.

Our Lady of the Rosary October 7th

On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion. Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe.
The feast always occurs one week after the similar Byzantine celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, which most Eastern Orthodox Christians and Eastern Catholics celebrate on October 1 in memory of a 10th-century military victory which protected Constantinople against invasion after a reported Marian apparition.

Pope Leo XIII was particularly devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary, producing 11 encyclicals on the subject of this feast and its importance in the course of his long pontificate.
In the first of them, 1883's “Supremi Apostolatus Officio,” he echoed the words of the oldest known Marian prayer (known in the Latin tradition as the “Sub Tuum Praesidium”), when he wrote, “It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary.”

“This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven,” Pope Leo continued, “has never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy … or by an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies.” Foremost among such “attacks” was the battle of Lepanto, a perilous and decisive moment in European and world history.

Troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire had invaded and occupied the Byzantine empire by 1453, bringing a large portion of the increasingly divided Christian world under a version of Islamic law. For the next hundred years, the Turks expanded their empire westward on land, and asserted their naval power in the Mediterranean. In 1565 they attacked Malta, envisioning an eventual invasion of Rome. Though repelled at Malta, the Turks captured Cyprus in the fall of 1570. The next year, three Catholic powers on the continent – Genoa, Spain, and the Papal States - formed an alliance called the Holy League, to defend their Christian civilization against Turkish invasion. Its fleets sailed to confront the Turks near the west coast of Greece on October 7, 1571.

Crew members on more than 200 ships prayed the Rosary in preparation for the battle - as did Christians throughout Europe, encouraged by the Pope to gather in their churches to invoke the Virgin Mary against the daunting Turkish forces.
Some accounts say that Pope Pius V was granted a miraculous vision of the Holy League's stunning victory. Without a doubt, the Pope understood the significance of the day's events, when he was eventually informed that all but 13 of the nearly 300 Turkish ships had been captured or sunk. He was moved to institute the feast now celebrated universally as Our Lady of the Rosary.

“Turkish victory at Lepanto would have been a catastrophe of the first magnitude for Christendom,” wrote military historian John F. Guilmartin, Jr., “and Europe would have followed a historical trajectory strikingly different from that which obtained.”

Feast of our Guardian Angels

According to the teaching of the Roman catechism, we must remember how admirable was the intention of divine Providence in entrusting to the angels the mission of watching over all mankind, and over individual human beings, lest they should fall victims to the grave dangers which they encounter. In this earthly life, when children have to make their way along a path beset with obstacles and snares, their fathers take care to call upon the help of those who can look after them and come to their aid in adversity. In the same way our Father in heaven has charged his angels to come to our assistance during our earthly journey which leads us to our blessed fatherland, so that, protected by the angels' help and care, we may avoid the snares upon our path, subdue our passions and, under this angelic guidance, follow always the straight and sure road which leads to Paradise...

Everyone of us is entrusted to the care of an angel.

May we never fail in this devotion to the angels! During our earthly pilgrimage we may often run the risk of having to face the natural elements in turmoil, or the wrath of men who may seek to do us harm. But our Guardian Angel is always present. Let us never forget him and always remember to pray to him. That is why we must have a lively and profound devotion to our own Guardian Angel, and why we should often and trustfully repeat the dear prayer we were taught in the days of our childhood:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day/night, be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. 

Each person on earth has a guardian angel who watches over him and helps him to attain his salvation. Angelical guardianship begins at the moment of birth; prior to this, the child is protected by the mother's guardian angel. This protection continues throughout our whole life and ceases only when our probation on earth ends, namely, at the moment of death. Our guardian angel accompanies our soul to purgatory or heaven, and becomes our coheir in the heavenly kingdom.

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Guardian Angels
 
Angels are servants and messengers from God. "Angel" in Greek means messenger. In unseen ways the angels help us on our earthly pilgrimage by assisting us in work and study, helping us in temptation and protecting us from physical danger.
The idea that each soul has assigned to it a personal guardian angel has been long accepted by the Church and is a truth of our faith. From the Gospel of today's liturgy we read: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father" (Matthew 18:10).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "the existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls 'angels' is a truth of faith (328)." From our birth until our death, man is surrounded by the protection and intercession of angels, particularly our guardian angel: "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life (336)." The Church thanks God for our helpers, the angels, particularly on this feast day and September 29 which is the feast of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Raphael, archangels. Today's feast appeared in Spain during the sixteenth century. It was extended to the universal Church and made obligatory in 1670.

FEAST OF STS. MICHAEL, GABRIEL, AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS

The feast of the three archangels- Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael- will be commemorated on September 29.

St. Michael whose name means “Who is like God” was the archangel who fought against satan and all his evil angels, defending all the friends of God. He is the protector of all humanity from the snares of the devil. St. Gabriel which means “Strength of God” announced to Zachariah the forthcoming birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary, the birth of Jesus. His greeting to the Virgin, "Hail, full of grace," is one of the most familiar and frequent prayers of the Christian people. St Raphael meaning “Medicine of God” is the archangel who took care of Tobias on his journey.

The three Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are the only angels named in Sacred Scripture and all three have important roles in the history of salvation.

Saint Michael is the "Prince of the Heavenly Host," the leader of all the angels. His name is Hebrew for "Who is like God?" and was the battle cry of the good angels against Lucifer and his followers when they rebelled against God. He is mentioned four times in the Bible, in Daniel 10 and 12, in the letter of Jude, and in Revelation.

Michael, whose forces cast down Lucifer and the evil spirits into Hell, is invoked for protection against Satan and all evil. Pope Leo XIII, in 1899, having had a prophetic vision of the evil that would be inflicted upon the Church and the world in the 20th century, instituted a prayer asking for Saint Michael's protection to be said at the end of every Mass.

Christian tradition recognizes four offices of Saint Michael: (i) to fight against Satan (ii) to rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death. (iii) to be the champion of God's people, (iv) to call away from earth and bring men's souls to judgment.

"I am Gabriel, who stand before God." (Luke 1, 19)

Saint Gabriel, whose name means "God's strength," is mentioned four times in the Bible. Most significant are Gabriel's two mentions in the New Testament: to announce the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias, and the at Incarnation of the Word in the womb of Mary.

Christian tradition suggests that it is he who appeared to St. Joseph and to the shepherds, and also that it was he who "strengthened" Jesus during his agony in the garden of Gethsemane.

"I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tob 12:15)

Saint Raphael, whose name means "God has healed" because of his healing of Tobias' blindness in the Book of Tobit.  Tobit is the only book in which he is mentioned. His office is generally accepted by tradition to be that of healing and acts of mercy.

Raphael is also identified with the angel in John 5:1-4 who descended upon the pond and bestowed healing powers upon it so that the first to enter it after it moved would be healed of whatever infirmity he was suffering.

For more information on the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, please click on the following links:

The Archangel Prayers
Prayer to St. Michael, the Archangel
Saint Michael the Archangel Story
How The Prayer Of St. Michael Came To Be Written
Saint Michael Archangel Apparitions
Chaplet of St. Michael The Archangel
Novena To Saint Michael The Archangel
Litany Of St. Michael The Archangel
Prayer to St. Gabriel, the Archangel
St.Gabriel Prayer
Litany of St Gabriel
Prayer to St. Raphael, the Archangel
Saint Raphael Prayer
Prayer to St Raphael for Healing
Prayer to St Raphael Before a Trip
Prayer to St. Raphael: Patron of Travelers & Bearers of the Good News
Prayer to St Raphael For the Choice of a Good Spouse
Litany in Honor of St. Raphael 

SEPTEMER 23 - Saint Padre Pio's Feast Day

Padré Pio was born of simple, hardworking farming people on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, southern Italy. He was tutored privately until his entry to the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at the age of 15. Of feeble health but strong will, with the help of grace he completed the required studies and was ordained a priest in 1910.

On September 20,

1918 the five wounds of Our Lord's Passion appeared on his body, making him the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church. Countless numbers were attracted to his confessional and many more received his saintly counsel and spiritual guidance through correspondence. His whole life was marked by long hours of prayer and continual austerity. His letters to his spiritual directors reveal the ineffable sufferings, physical and spiritual, which accompanied him all through life. They also reveal his very deep union with God, his burning love for the Blessed Eucharist and Our Blessed Lady. Worn out by over half a century of intense suffering and constant apostolic activity in San Giovanni Rotondo, he was called to his heavenly reward on September 23, 1968. After a public funeral, which attracted almost 100,000, his body was entombed in the crypt of Our Lady of Grace Church. Increasing numbers flock to his tomb from all parts of the world and many testify to spiritual and temporal graces received. On May 2, 1999 Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in ceremonies at the Vatican.  

June 16, 2002, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was solemnly canonized a Saint by Pope John Paul II.

John Paul II was the only pope who Padre Pio entrusted with the most private detail of his stigmata

The exhumed body of St. Padre Pio lies in a glass sepulchre in the crypt of the saint's shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, southern Italy, April 24. The body of Padre Pio, who died in 1968, will be on display until at least September. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters) (April 24, 2008)

Fr Wojtyla was the only person that Padre Pio ever told about his most painful and bloody wound

In the years after World War II, the young Fr Karol Wojtyla was doing further study in Rome. He journeyed into rural Italy so that he could spend nearly a week in San Giovanni Rotondo and be in the company of Padre Pio. At the time, swarms of people did not buzz around Padre Pio, so the young Fr Wojtyla had the opportunity to speak at length with the Franciscan who called himself the ‘humble friar who prays’.
Decades later, when Fr Wojtyla became the Holy Father, people speculated as to whether Padre Pio had told him that he would be Pope. Pope John Paul II clarified that Padre Pio did not tell him that he would be Pope.

But Padre Pio went further than reading the future for Fr Wojtyla, and did something much more decisive and significant. When Fr Wojtyla asked Padre Pio which one of his wounds (from the stigmata) caused him the most suffering, Padre Pio divulged, “it is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated.”  After the most diligent analysis of Padre Pio’s life, it was revealed that Fr Wojtyla was the only person that Padre Pio ever told about his most painful and bloody wound.  
Padre Pio had his reasons, which are unknown, for not telling the young Pole that he would be the Holy Father. But it’s certain that Padre Pio bore the wounds of Christ, and deliberately confided in the priest who would be the Vicar of Christ. It’s like Padre Pio was talking directly to the soul of one who God had ordained would be Pope.  

But there’s something even more unique.  From what we know, Padre Pio did not tell other Popes, such as Paul VI (the reigning Pope when Padre Pio died) about his most excruciating wound. From all ruling popes and all future popes, Fr Wojtyla was the one entrusted with this secret. 

~by Mary O'Regan
from: CatholicHerald.co.uk

St. Therese of Lisieux Novena - 9/22 - 9/30

Join us in the novena to St. Therese of Lisieux! Also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, she is a doctor of the Church and Pope Pius X called her the “greatest saint of modern times.” Needless to say, she is a most powerful intercessor and she is beloved by many who seek her help.
She is one of the most popular saints of our day.


Daily Prayer added to individual days below:

Dearest Saint Therese of Lisieux, you said that you would spend your time in heaven doing good on earth.

Your trust in God was complete. Pray that He may increase my trust in His goodness and mercy as I ask for the following petitions…

(State your intentions)

Pray for me that I, like you, may have great and innocent confidence in the loving promises of our God. Pray that I may live my life in union with God’s plan for me, and one day see the Face of God Whom you loved so deeply.

Saint Therese, you were faithful to God up until the moment of your death. Pray for me that I may be faithful to our loving God. May my life bring peace and love to the world through faithful endurance in love for God our Savior.

St. Therese Novena DAY ONE

Loving God, you blessed St. Therese with a capacity for a great love. Help me to believe in Your unconditional love for each of Your children, especially for me.
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY TWO

Loving God, you loved St. Therese’s complete trust in Your care. Help me to rely on Your providential care in each circumstance of my life, especially the most difficult and stressful.
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY THREE

Loving God, you gave St. Therese the ability to see You in the ordinary routine of each day. Help me to be aware of Your Presence in the everyday events of my life.
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY FOUR

Loving God, You taught St. Therese how to find You through the “little way” of humility and simplicity. Grant that I may never miss the grace hidden in humble service to others.
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY FIVE

Loving God, You gave St. Therese the gift of forgiving others even when she felt hurt and betrayed. Help me to be able to forgive others who have wounded me, especially…
I try to forgive, Lord. Help me to forgive 70 times 7 times!
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY SIX

Loving God, St. Therese experienced every day as a gift from You. She saw it as a time to love You through other people. May I, too, see every day as an opportunity to say yes to You.
I accept Your Will, Lord. Help me to accept Your Will every day!
I try to forgive, Lord. Help me to forgive 70 times 7 times!
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY SEVEN

Loving God, St. Therese offered to You her weakness. Help me to see in my weakness an opportunity to rely completely on You.
I rely on You, Lord. Help me to rely on You more!
I accept Your Will, Lord. Help me to accept Your Will every day!
I try to forgive, Lord. Help me to forgive 70 times 7 times!
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY EIGHT

Loving God, You loved St. Therese with a powerful love and made her a source of strength to those who had lost faith in You. Help me to pray with confidence for those in my life who do not believe they can be loved.
I reflect You to the world, Lord. Help me to reflect You more clearly!
I rely on You, Lord. Help me to rely on You more!
I accept Your Will, Lord. Help me to accept Your Will every day!
I try to forgive, Lord. Help me to forgive 70 times 7 times!
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

St. Therese Novena DAY NINE

Loving God, St. Therese never doubted that her life had meaning. Help me to see how I can bless and love everyone in my life. Especially…
I love Your people, Lord. Help me to love them more!
I reflect You to the world, Lord. Help me to reflect You more clearly!
I rely on You, Lord. Help me to rely on You more!
I accept Your Will, Lord. Help me to accept Your Will every day!
I try to forgive, Lord. Help me to forgive 70 times 7 times!
I am humble, Lord. Give me more humility!
I see You, Lord. Help me to see You more!
I trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!
I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…


FEAST DAY OCTOBER 1st

Reflection for Our Lady of Sorrows

STUEBENVILLE, Ohio, SEPT. 14, 2010 (Zenit.org)

A few years back, a man called into a live radio show and exclaimed, "What's all the fuss about calling Mary the co-redemptrix?"

The caller explained, "What parent can't understand that when a child suffers, a parent suffers with that child? Last month, my daughter underwent a life threatening surgery, and it would have been much easier for me to be on the operating table than to be in the waiting room. When a child suffers, of course the parent suffers. When Jesus suffered, of course Mary suffered."

To celebrate the feast of Our Mother of Sorrows is to celebrate Mary's role as co-redemptrix. In seven ways, this Mother suffered with this Son like no mother has ever suffered before.

1. The prophecy of Simeon is an explicit scriptural revelation that Mary will suffer with her son, the sign of contradiction for the world. "A sword shall pierce through your own soul, too" (Luke 2:35). The Mother will indeed suffer with her Redeemer-Son, as the New Adam and the New Eve seek to restore grace to a fallen humanity. Mary knows her child was born to die, as the Presentation at the Temple profoundly pre-figures Golgotha: a mother offers her son in perfect obedience to the Father at a place of sacrifice.

2. The flight into Egypt by the holiest of families will bring newfound pains to the heart of the Mother. Herod's soldiers seek the blood of the Redeemer too early. St. Joseph brings the child and his mother to a foreign land, a pagan land that is not well-disposed to Jewish refugees based on an exodus in the past. Mary must care and protect for her son in a hostile environment until heaven directs otherwise. Faithful obedience intermingled with suffering remains the Mother's daily bread.

3. When Jesus is "lost" for three days in the Temple, the Redemption is again foreshadowed. Mother and Son will be separated for three days, as each will complete the Father's business on Calvary and await the Easter victory. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). Her immaculate heart would become the "memory" for the Church, as she would later instruct the apostolic Church as to how to properly meditate on the Passion, from the loss at the Temple, to the Way of the Cross, to Calvary itself, as Mary suffered and offered with Jesus each mysterious component of our Redemption

4. The Way of the Cross enacts and signifies the joint spiritual journey of the Son and the Mother in their unified mission of Redemption. She walks with him as he carries the cross on his bloodied shoulders, and she carries the cross in her maternal heart. Each step brings both extraordinary pain, but such is the price for ransoming an entire human family.

5. As Jesus is physically crucified, Mary is spiritually crucified. As John Paul the Great notes, "Crucified spiritually with her crucified Son, she contemplated with heroic love the death of her God, she 'loving consented to the immolation of the Victim which she herself had brought forth ("Lumen Gentium," No. 58)'…In fact, Mary's role as co-redemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son."

Vatican II adds that the Mother was "enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, [and] associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart" ("Lumen Gentium," No. 58). It is little wonder that John Paul would say Mary's sufferings at Calvary reached a level almost unimaginable ("Salvifici Doloris," No. 25).

6. When Jesus is taken down for the cross, the Mother can finally unburden her heart with full mourning and lamentation, as before this time she had to remain strong in solidarity with her Son and the redemptive mission, "stabat mater" (John 19:25). Christ's body would be cleansed and cared for now as it had been cleansed and cared for before in infancy, by the same mother who gave to her child a nature identical to her own, human and immaculate. Now the Mother horrifically sees the price of Redemption, wound by wound.

7. As the body of Jesus is entombed, the Mother's heart is called to the greatest act of faith amidst the greatest suffering, and against all human analysis. From man's perspective, her son's effort to win souls to himself has ended in failure and murder. From God's perspective, "consummatum est" (it is finished), and now patience must bide its time until the Easter morning victory in perfect fulfillment of God's plan. Only faith amid ongoing anguish by the Mother calls forth heaven's perspective in the innermost tabernacle of her immaculate soul.

The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady have been collectively mediated upon in the Church since the 14th century. In the recently Church-approved Marian apparitions in Kibeho, Rwanda, Our Lady calls us to return to the weekly praying of the Chaplet or "Rosary" of the Seven Sorrows with the promise of extraordinary graces.

Why ponder the Mother's sorrow? It is a concrete, motherly example for us on how we are to face our own personal sufferings, which seem to be growing domestically, nationally, and globally by the day. We are to in every situation unite our sufferings with those of Jesus, as did the Mother, for our own redemption, and for the co-redemption of our brothers and sisters throughout the world (cf. Colossians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 3:9), many of whom either do not know Jesus or do not love Jesus

This is also why the solemn papal definition of Mary co-redemptrix will proclaim to the world with the highest of papal authority a quintessential and uniquely Christian truth: suffering is redemptive.

Ponder the Mother's sufferings. Her sorrow is our victory.

Pray for the papal definition of Mary co-redemptrix and the torrents of graces it will bring to a suffering Church and world. This includes the true and profound heavenly perspective that no human suffering need be wasted.