The Lord being your portion, you renounced all elsethe honors, the pleasures, and the rewards of marriageand joyously chose the life of a virgin. 2. Whatever graces we receive, come to us through your intercession. Mary, My Mother, how shall I stand before my Judge at the day of judgment? In all of the mysteries of Jesus, in every part of His life, the Father always thought of you two together; together you labored to save men. For my proud nature, humility is most difficult to practise. By offering your Divine Son on Calvary you brought me forth to a life of grace and thus became my spiritual Mother. Mary, Mother of God, God had a purpose in wanting you and Joseph to become man and wife. 1. Your apostolic workto snatch souls from Satan and from sin to make them live the supernatural lifeis the very reason for your motherhood. May I derive all the beneficial results the holy sacraments are to produce in my soul. You were beautiful when you stood as the brave Queen of Martyrs beneath the cross of your dying Son; in the supper room beneath the fiery tongues of the Divine Spirit; beautiful, above all, in the glory in which you reign with Jesus. 3. Mary, My Mother, may the faithful recitation of my Rosary show my gratitude to Jesus for having redeemed me on the cross and for having given you to me as my spiritual Mother. He could not make you divine by nature, but He has made you inseparable from Jesus in the salvation of souls through the grace which He has so abundantly poured out upon you because of the Divine Motherhood. Mary, Mother of God, the miracle of the Marriage feast of Cana shows that you are the Mother of Divine Providence. For from the moment when Jesus told you to see Him, in John, you saw Jesus in all Christians. Through you my own goal becomes more real, more attainable, for the lessons of your life are the doors to eternal peace and happiness. You found the cross very heavy during the three years of His public life, for then He had to leave your side that He might be "about His Father's business,"the sanctification and salvation of souls. Whoever abides in this Church will bring forth much salutary fruit; whereas they who willingly separate themselves from it must wither away spiritually. How wonderful were the workings of divine power to make you a fitting dwelling for the Redeemer of the world! I find faith in its light, hope in its help. Your sincere love made you hasten to be of service. 2. In becoming His Mother, you became ours. And I did this, not under the sudden influence of passion, but deliberately with full knowledge of the act, of its horrible malice in the sight of God and of the terrible consequences in which it involved me. Mary, My Mother, the beloved disciple, St. John, tells us that "a great sign appeared in heaven: "a Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Apoc. Your directions to the waiters: "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2, 5), show that you regarded your Son's answer as a striking sign of His special love for you. 11, 29). At the marriage feast of Cana you asked your Son to perform a miracle for the distressed bride and groom. How God rewarded your humble and deep faith! Though Joseph planned to put you away privately when he recognized that you were with child, you still were unwilling to reveal your secret to him, lest you might seem to boast of your gifts. The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Only after many years of fervent prayers did God reward them. The picture you imprinted on the cloak of the Indian at Guadalupe was the image of the Immaculate Conception. May my life thus become a copy of your own life especially during this time of your expectation! Her name, feast day, location of her monastery, and attributes are those of the Celtic Goddess Brigit. Jesus reigns over us not only by natural right, but also by the right of redemption. As Mother of the spiritual and heavenly you are the mediatrix of the light of grace to mankind. But you are Mother only of penitent sinners who have left their evil ways before death. 8, 35). You yourself are full of grace, and from the Holy Spirit, your Divine Spouse, you have received in overflowing measure His boundless love for all mankind. You brought me forth to the divine life. 2. 'Teach me that the test of my following of your Divine Son is practical charity. Mary, Mother of God, by your offering you sacrificed your own heart. You were united with Jesus when He bestowed special favors. It was an answer which had scarcely fallen from your lips, before It drew the only-begotten Son of God from the bosom of His Eternal Father, to become Man in your most pure womb! Mary, Mother of God, I pour out to you the sorrows of my own troubled heart. 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. Finally, they remind me of the everlasting glory of all the saints in Heaven united with your own glory and that of your Son. For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. The wisdom and power of God was constructing a living temple for the Savior of the world. Having deigned to come down to you, He wished to raise you up to Himself in order that you might enter into glory. 2. You are a Mediatrix in union with Christ from whom your mediation draws all its power. Mary, Mother of God, how great was the honor given to you at the Annunciation! In order to live, not to myself, but to God, I must bear the cross in union with Jesus. You are the Mediatrix of our peace with God and the Giver of heavenly graces. Pray for us, you who are so powerful, be all-powerful in our behalf! Give my heart sentiments like His and your own so that, through frequent Holy Communion and prayer, I may become a worthy co-victim with Jesus, holy and pleasing to God, and so that all the actions, sufferings, tears and disappointments of my life may be thus consecrated to God as a sacrifice for His glory and the salvation of souls, especially my own. Jesus is the only Mediator of justice, and by His merits He obtains for us all graces and salvation but you are the Mediatrix of grace. Mary, My Mother, as often as your sweet name comes to my lips, you appear to me as a masterpiece of God's power, so perfect and so sublime that even the hand of Almighty God could not produce anything more perfect in the form of a pure creature. Mary, My Mother, at my baptism you gave me life at the moment when sanctifying grace was infused into my soul at the baptismal font. You were declared to be the spiritual "Mother of all the living." You are pure and sinless. After the name of Jesus, neither heaven nor earth can utter a name by which my faith and love receive more abundant grace, and reassuring hope, and lasting sweetness. Shed upon me more and more the living light of that faith which made you blessed. Teach me to utter your name with deep respect because, after the name of Jesus, it is most sacred and revered above all others. Obtain for them that deep conviction of faith, that unwavering hope, that Jesus, Infinite Love, who died for them, will b completely ready to welcome them, to take them in His arms, press them to His Heart and once again say, "Father, forgive them . They are God's servants, but you are His Mother. You abandoned yourself to God's will with deep faith and confidence. In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII placed the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion in the Roman Calendar on Friday before Palm Sunday. As in Heaven the Divine Word is like the Father, so on earth the Son, according to the flesh, is like you His Mother. That date was not chosen by accident, but because it is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Your heart watches over them tenderly. How great must have been that longing! May I remember always your sorrows on Calvary, through which you begot us to God and became the co-redemptrix of our race. But you are a creature so holy and so perfect that you are superior to all other creatures. You heard the mob, led by the chief priests clamoring for His crucifixion. You fulfill the duties and enjoy the rights of a true mother. You saw the cross raised and heard the mob, not yet satisfied with their bloody work, continue to torment their dying Victim. It is under the mantle of humility that you will protect me. The Consecration took place on Calvary where you shared in the offering of the bloody sacrifice of the New Testament. Protect, guard, and keep them in holy fear, in peace, and in harmony of Christian charity. How happy Jesus must have been to receive the homage that you paid Him! Due to her feast day on September 15, the month of September has traditionally been set aside to honor Our Lady of Sorrows. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Never did you yield to the least imperfection, let alone sin. We can certainly call you "Suppliant Omnipotence.". As the heart of a mother triumphs over the just anger of a father in an earthly family so your Heart will triumph by averting the force of God's justice upon this sinful world. Holy Cards will continue to be added as our collections align with Feast Days of the Saints in our collection. This marked the beginning of your life of suffering together with Jesus. Mary, My Mother, I rejoice with the Blessed Trinity on your birthday because you were to take part in the Incarnation and Redemption of the world, I rejoice with all mankind because you became the Mother of our Redeemer. I breathe the name of one who is virgin and mother, Mother of God and Mother of men, my Mother. Mary, My Mother, from your early years you adored the one true God in the Temple at Jerusalem. Your Heart, Blessed Mother, is always conformable to Our Lord's will. Mary, My Mother, the Church puts these words of the Canticle on your lips: "I love those who love me." Your heart and His burned with one flame of love to the glory of the Father there at the altar. You invite none to come to you but the lowly of spirit. Mary, My Mother, who crushed the head of the serpent, I pray for my country. Petition God that their hope may never fail amid the troubles and the cares of this life. I am grateful to your divine Son for this priceless gift of God, for by His Passion and death He not only reinstated us in the friendship of His heavenly Father, but also purchased for us all the graces we stand in need of to attain eternal life. You were chosen as Mother predestined before all creatures, filled with all grace, all virtue, all holiness so that the Son, infinitely pure, who in Heaven has an immortal and eternal Father, on earth has a Mother exempt from all sin. Jesus, your First-born, was brought forth in joy at Bethlehem, but His brethren, your spiritual children, were brought forth in anguish of spirit at the foot of the cross. In 1913, Pope Pius X fixed the date on September 15. Collected by the web master from various calendars; if you have a Feast that I missed, please let me know, so I can include it. Your example teaches me that Jesus will work miracles for persevering prayer that springs from confidence and humility. I am in need of forgiveness of sin, of strength in temptation. You are our Mother, because you have begotten us to the life of grace. Help me to overcome the enemies of my salvation and to persevere to the end in the friendship of God. For that reason you were conceived by your mother, Saint Anne, without even the shadow of sin. At every moment you interest yourself in our behalf in heaven, and obtain for us by your prayers all the graces we need to reach salvation. In order to free yourself from legal uncleanness and to give us an example of obedience to God's law, you submitted to the ceremony of the purification and made the offering demanded of the poortwo pigeons or turtledoves. I can pray to you with full confidence because you are loved by the Father as the Mother of His Son, loved by the Son as His own Mother, loved by the Holy Spirit as His Immaculate Bride. "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce." You are all-powerful because your divine Son instantly fulfills all your desires in order to honor you. You became the Mother of a Son who is almighty, eternal and infinite in all perfections, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. This intimacy with God was the soul of your soulyour very life. You could also hold your own celebration of Our Lady by inviting friends and family to your home for a traditional Mexican meal. 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. After your example, I desire to be known to God and unknown to men, to possess God and to be forgotten by creatures. Mary, My Mother, glorious is your name for those who pronounce it at death, for they need not fear all the powers of hell. Filled with motherly compassion, you appealed to Jesus in behalf of your friends. Mary, My Mother, the word which best summarizes your whole career is "Mother." Since you had your place beside Jesus when there was question of ransoming us and meriting for us all the graces necessary for our salvation, you must in like manner have your place beside Him now, when there is question of securing for us by your prayers in heaven the graces prepared for us in view of the merits of Christ. Your birth was a miracle of the power of God because both of your parents were far advanced in years. If I have humility, God may flood my soul with grace here and exalt it eternally in heaven. Make me Eucharist-minded to the extent that my very life may be the Eucharistin union with you, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Led by divine inspiration to His house, you prepared yourself for your sublime dignity of Divine Motherhood in silence and solitude with God. I, too, am a sinner. 3. Eve listened to the voice of the serpent and brought death to the human race, you became a source of salvation to all mankind by receiving with humility the word of God brought to you by the angel Gabriel. Mary, Mother of God, your name means "full of light" and "light-giving." The word compassion derives from the Latin roots cum and patior which means "to suffer with." But we do find you standing beneath the cross on Calvary, when your Son was derided and mocked. He was with you not only with His actual grace, touching your heart and enlightening your understanding. The suffering of Jesus in His dereliction was the most difficult test of your faith. I have but to ask for them for the salvation of my soul. 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. If the sinner dies in his sins you cannot desire to save him, because Jesus will not save him. Your Heart was also a pure Heart, pure as the light, purer than the snow, free from the stain of original sin, from the least taint of actual sin, from the least evil tendency of our fallen naturea heart full of light and beauty reflecting to the full the radiance of the Sacred Heart of your Divine Son. Your loving Son came to teach this virtue to mankind by His example, and He desired that we should especially strive to imitate Him, for He said, "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls" (Matt. From the moment of His entering the world, your loving Son Jesus, was the price of our salvation. Even in the Son of God I sometimes fear the Divine Majesty because although He became Man, He did not cease to be God. 2. 500 days. To you I give my body, my heart and my soul. Your body, which was the living tabernacle of the Eternal God and the temple of the Adorable Trinity, was not meant to crumble into dust. You rule in heaven and on earth. Amen. Fr. Having once given us Jesus Christ by you, God does not change His way of helping us. Teach parents to care for their children as God's sacred trust, to guard them from sin and to lead them in the way of virtue. Though worn with sorrow, you at once took your place at the foot of the cross. You did not go to a distance, but drew nearer to the crossthe hard bed on which Jesus had to die. We ask you to procure for us, by your prayers the great grace of final perseverance so that those who are joined to honor you in the kingdom of your Son on earth may be together always in heaven. Mary, Mother of God, I believe that the dignity, holiness and glory of Joseph rests on the fact that he was your spouse and that he was the foster father of Jesus Christ. He ordered most perfectly His whole creation, for He is the true fountain and highest source of light and wisdom. No one could have had a closer approach to God than you, for it is impossible for any creature to be closer to God's Son than His own Mother. 2. But you are not the adoptive Mother of the Son of God; you are His real Mother. All the tsars were crowned and patriarchs installed in the presence of this image, up until the revolution. . Your birth was represented beforehand by many figures, announced by prophets, desired for many ages by the human race. 1. She humbly exclaimed, "How have I deserved this happiness that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" the seven dolors devotion approved by pope pius vii in 1815 view banner image of our lady of sorrows without the frame the feast day of the seven dolors is traditionally either the friday of passion week, which is the friday before good friday, or more generally on september 15, the official date for the feast. I need an advocate with God, and therefore I turn to you, the Mother of God. Mary, Mother of God, you are Mother of Grace, because you are begotten of you to the life of grace, and are indebted to you after Jesus, for our supernatural life. Your Immaculate Conception permitted you to love God from the first instant of your existence; your virginity led you to vow an undivided love to Him, your fullness of grace made you capable of loving Him with the most intense love possible. The words of Simeon were then fulfilled. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Help of Christians because you are the Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ. Mary, Mother of God, the glorious mysteries of the Holy Rosary remind me of the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ. You received from the Adorable Trinity the crown and sceptre, which made you Queen of all the angels and saints and the all-powerful Mediatrix between God and men. Jesus continues ceaselessly to pray for us, offering for us to His heavenly Father His infinite merits and atonement, and causing the floods of grace to descend upon us to save us. You have never turned away your eyes from souls in need. 10/7/2009 (1 decade ago) Published in Living Faith. The divine maternity permits you to love God with a very singular kind of love and to be loved by Him with an equally singular love. Crowds reach the entry gate to the basilica grounds for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Never did a mother love her son as you loved Jesus; and so never did a mother share in her son's agony so deeply as you shared the Passion. Mary, My Mother, through your prayers may I be blessed with a keen understanding of the ways of God. Forming with your Divine Son one spiritual body, we experience the rage of Satan until the end of time. You are far more than an instrument of God's mercy towards us. The holier a person is and the greater the intimacy of his union with God, the greater also is the power of his prayers. Help me to love God with my whole strengthso that I may consecrate undividedly, unreservedly and continually to His service, my life, my health and all I am and have. Rather, your sorrows were ordained by God from all eternity as part of the penalty to be paid for sin and were to mingle with the sufferings of your Son in that great sacrifice which was to redeem the world. Our Lady of Treves, Italy (746). After the prophecy of Simeon, the Scriptures mention that "His father and mother" were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him. Your motherly love contributed so much to our salvation in the Incarnation of the Son of God, who is the Universal Source of Grace, that you will eternally contribute as much to all the works of grace, which come to us because of the Incarnation. Bless the people of the Americas, citizens of those lands to which uncounted thousands have come to seek refuge and livelihood. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Mother of Perpetual Help because of the graces you have at your disposal. Pray to Him for us, your children, that in our exile we may resemble you, His most devoted follower, and at last may glorify Him in union with you forever. The victim had to belong to the person who offered it. Mary, My Mother, the Heart of Jesus was a generous Heart, symbolized by the wound in His side from which came forth the last drops of His Heart's Blood shed for us, and by which w e can reach the treasures of that Divine Heart. But with the same humility with which you had conceived Him, you consented to the supreme loss of your God. Mary, Mother of God, your apparition at Guadalupe teaches me that devotion to you is a source of great graces. Humility is not belittling myself, but taking the place which rightly belongs to me, not a higher place, nor a lower, but the true and just place where God wants me. What a striking lesson you give me by this unlimited confidence in the power and goodness-of your Divine Son! God freed His future messenger from original sin and enriched him with grace. He was with you in a manner more intimate, more perfect, and more divine than He ever was or will be with any other creature. 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. You were soon really to see the Face of God the created image of divine perfection, the sight of which rejoices heaven and earth, from which all beings derive life and joy; the Face whose features enraptured God from all eternity, the Face for which all ages had expectantly yearned. 2. Dear St. Joseph, all the saints and angels, and especially you, my guardian angel and my chosen patron, watch over me. All-powerful though He is, God could not bestow upon a creature a degree of honor higher than that conferred on you as the Mother of His Son. You are my Queen, my Lady. Your prayers are those of a Mother and, therefore, have a certain maternal authority with Jesus Christ so that you obtain the grace of pardon even for those who, though guilty of grievous crimes, commend themselves to you. But many of these straying children are ignorant and not fully responsible. The corresponding feast, however, did not . Mary, My Mother, I am the work of the wisdom of God together with all other creatures. Indeed, all were awaiting your Son: the world, to gain rest and peace, the angels, to see God's plans fulfilled; the Heavenly Father Himself to behold His created Image: and all this longing was united in your heart. No one has found or received such grace as you. Rolly Arjonillo. 1. Thereby you sanctified all our afflictions and united them with those of Jesus. You bore your sorrows bravely because you received them from God's hands. Through the sorrow which you felt during your whole life, but especially when you saw Jesus led to His death and then crucified, obtain for me the grace that I may patiently bear the sufferings which God has seen fit to send me, even as you bore your sufferings. You were never under the power of the serpent, whose head you crushed in giving a Redeemer to the world. I come to you with confidence, knowing that through you all glory, honor and holiness given to the human race from the first Adam to the last ages has been granted, is being granted and will be granted to apostles, prophets, martyrs and all the just. I consecrate myself entirely to your Immaculate Heart.