Showing posts with label Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary. Show all posts

Tuesday 8 September 2015

THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said. 
 Fw: Birthday of Mary 8 September nine months to 8 December

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----- Forwarded Message 
From: .......
To: Donald ...

Sent: Monday, 7 September 2015, 22:12
Subject: Birthday of Mary 8 September nine months 8 December

Again to transfer to Blogspot..
 

 
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THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2015

The Catholic Church celebrates today the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.
The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.
These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary.
The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”
Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.
As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”
After Mary's birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anne “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl's room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”
“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations' . . . And he brought her to the chief priests, and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.'”
The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.
Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said. 
The fourth-century bishop, whose theology profoundly shaped the Western Church's understanding of sin and human nature, affirmed that “through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed." 

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Mother of Salvation by Aemiliana Lohr

Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours.
Augustinian Press 1995
Night Office.

 
Mother of Salvation


TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
WEDNESDAY

First Reading
WEDNESDAY
Ephesians      5:21-33

Responsory        Sg 2:10-12; Rv 19:9
My Beloved speaks and says to me Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for see, t the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear in the countryside.
V. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb. t The winter is past ...


Second Reading
From Mother of Salvation by Aemiliana Lohr

It would be wrong to think of God only as masculine and father. He who created man in his own image created him male and female. Both then, the female as well as the male, must have their prototype in him. "For in his ineffable being he is Father, but in his compassion for us he became a mother. It was through love that the Father became feminine, and the clearest proof of this is the Son begotten of him. The fruit of love is love." It sounds like a natural conclusion from these profound thoughts of Clement of Alexandria, when a Christmas trope praises Mary as "Mother of fatherly love."

Therefore, if the love of God, his maternal and womanly aspect, has become visible for us precisely in the Son who became man, it is certainly because even Christ himself - the faithful reflection of the Father - appeared as male and female like Adam when first created; he had the Church at his side, after all, hidden at first, but revealed by the cross; better still, he was enveloped by her as by his spiritual body. In his passion he suffered, endured and conquered as man, as God's servant and as Lord; and he has placed the distribution of the hard won treasure of salvation, in the form of a sacrament, in the womanly and maternal hands of his Church, who as his body and his spouse is nothing other than himself, Christus totus, the whole, the one Christ, the only Son of the Father, the one love of God who became man.

It is she, therefore, the Church, manifest image of what is motherly in God, that the author of the Apocalypse portrays for us in the great sign of the woman in labour. Yet, it must be admitted, it is Paul rather than John who proclaims this mystery, explaining in words what John presents in image. Paul is aware of the virginal marriage-bond between Christ and the Church, the great mystery from which all earthly marriage receives its meaning and consecration; he is aware of the Lord as head and saviour of his body; and he is aware of the Jerusalem above, the free woman, who is our mother. He who no longer knows Christ in a merely human way, but only as the glorified Lord, does not speak of Mary either, the earthly mother of Jesus, but only of the mother of his spiritual body, the Church. She, like Christ, is Paul's great and only love. For he is aware of the mystery: that the Church is Christ, and Christ is the Church; that they are both the same, one body and one spirit; she his body and he her head; he her Saviour and she the fullness of his being. It is only as both together that they are the whole man whom God desired, to whom he had already given, as it were, preliminary shape in Adam and his wife, but who has only now been brought to maturity in Christ, the new Adam, and the Church, his body and his spouse. In them we really see the true eternal ideal of man which was planned from the very beginning, the perfect and indissoluble unity of man and woman.

Responsory    Rv 19:7-8
Let us rejoice and exult and give glory to God, for the wedding-day
of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. t She has been given fine linen, bright and clean, to wear.
V. The fine linen is the good deeds of the saints. + She has been ...


MARY'S ROLE IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
Monday, January 13, 2014
26. MARY'S ROLE IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
    Mary,s acceptance....  

Continuation from: 23. Mary - The Mother Of God

To understand the title "Mother of God," we must first clearly understand Mary's role as mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
 

As Catholics, we firmly believe in the incarnation of Our Lord: Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 2Luke 1:26-38 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, [27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin' s name was Mary. [28] And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. [29] Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. [30] And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. [31] Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. [33] And of his kingdom there shall be no end. [34] And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? [35] And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36] And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: [37] Because no word shall be impossible with God. [38]And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. and we can also refer to Matthew 1:18-25

Through her, Jesus Christ — second person of the Holy Trinity, one-in-being (consubstantial) with the Father, and true God from true God — entered this world taking on human flesh and a human soul. Jesus is true God and true man. In His divine person are united both a divine nature and a human nature. 

Mary did not create the divine person of Jesus, who existed with the Father and Holy Spirit from all eternity: "In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly 'Mother of God' (Theotokos)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 495). As St. John wrote,
 "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory: The glory of an only Son coming from the Father filled with enduring love" John 1:14. Here Jesus was the Word from the beginning of time who is God and became flesh.


Mary Adoring 
Her Son Jesus
Mary - Model of Purity and Goodness.

So who is Mary according to the Scripture?
In the Bible, based on the gospel texts, we may have erroneously formed an incomplete picture of Mary.
 
We probably imagined Mary as a
·                  young (to face the reality and hardship of life), 
·                  innocent (in ways of the world) and 
·                  timid (silly, incompetent, spineless) 
but Mary proved otherwise and she was far from all these,

Mary was a Picture of
·                  Beauty in and out - she was made pure and immaculate from the beginning of time in the sight of God. (Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed:she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.) Even from the time of Adam and Eve, Mary the Mother of Jesus is already pre-destined to crush the head of the evil.
·                  Humility with singleness of purpose (Luke 1:38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.And the angel departed from her.)
·                  Initiative and Patience (John 2:3 And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. [4] And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. [5] His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. 
[4]
 What is that to me: These words of our Saviour, spoken to his mother, have been understood by some commentators as harsh, they not considering the next following verse: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye, which plainly shews that his mother knew of the miracle that he was to perform, and that it was at her request he wrought it; besides the manner of speaking the words as to the tone, and the countenance shewn at the same time, which could only be known to those who were present, or from what had followed: for words indicating anger in one tone of voice, would be understood quite the reverse in another.)
·                  Faith (in God's plan) & Obedience (to the will of God) Luke 1:38
·                  Willingness (to give up her own Son to be crucified) & Strength (to withstand the pain)
·                  Forgiveness (for those who crucified Jesus) & Love (for all mankind)

And Mary was all these

Saturday 22 August 2015

Mary 22 August The angels rejoiced to see their queen; the apostles rejoiced to see their lady, and both obeyed her with loving devotion


SECOND READING

From a homily by Saint Amadeus of Lausanne, bishop
(Hom. 7: SC 72, 188, 190, 192, 200)

Queen of the world and of peace


Observe how fitting it was that even before her assumption the name of Mary shone forth wondrously throughout the world. Her fame spread everywhere even before she was raised above the heavens in her magnificence. Because of the honor due her Son, it was indeed fitting for the Virgin Mother to have first ruled upon earth and then be raised up to heaven in glory. It was fitting that her fame be spread in this world below, so that she might enter the heights of heaven on overwhelming blessedness. Just as she was borne from virtue to virtue by the Spirit of the Lord, she was transported from earthly renown to heavenly brightness.

So it was that she began to taste the fruits of her future reign while still in the flesh. At one moment she withdrew to God in ecstasy; at the next she would bend down to her neighbors with indescribable love. In heaven angels served her, while here on earth she was venerated by the service of men. Gabriel and the angels waited upon her in heaven. The virgin John, rejoicing that the Virgin Mother was entrusted to him at the cross, cared for her with the other apostles here below. The angels rejoiced to see their queen; the apostles rejoiced to see their lady, and both obeyed her with loving devotion.

Dwelling in the loftiest citadel of virtue, like a sea of divine grace or an unfathomable source of love that has everywhere overflowed its banks, she poured forth her bountiful waters on trusting and thirsting souls. Able to preserve both flesh and spirit from death she bestowed health-giving salve on bodies and souls. Has anyone ever come away from her troubled or saddened or ignorant of the heavenly mysteries? Who has not returned to everyday life gladdened and joyful because his request had been granted by the Mother of God?

She is a bride, so gentle and affectionate, and the mother of the only true bridegroom. In her abundant goodness she has channelled the spring of reason’s garden, the well of living and life-giving waters that pour forth in a rushing stream from divine Lebanon and flow down from Mount Zion until they surround the shores of every far-flung nation. With divine assistance she has redirected these waters and made them into streams of peace and pools of grace. Therefore, when the Virgin of virgins was led forth by God and her Son, the King of kings. amid the company of exulting angels and rejoicing archangels, with the heavens ringing with praise, the prophecy of the psalmist was fulfilled, in which he said to the Lord: At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold of Ophir.

RESPONSORY
Revelation 12:1; Psalm 45:10b


A great sign appeared in the heavens:
a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
 and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

The queen, clothed in cloth of gold, stood on your right hand.
 And upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Father,
you have given us the mother of your Son
to be our queen and mother.
With the support of her prayers
may we come to share the glory of your children
in the kingdom of heaven.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
 Amen.



Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen
The festivities today parallels that of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955. He celebrated, until the recent reform of the liturgical calendar, May 31, crowning the singular devotion to Mary in the month dedicated to her. August 22 was reserved for the commemoration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was replaced at the feast of Mary Queen to bring the kingship to his glorification in the assumption of the Virgin into heaven. This place of uniqueness and preeminence, next to Christ the King, the result of multiple titles, illustrated by Pius XII in his encyclical "Ad Coeli Reginam" (11 October 1954), the Mother of the Head and members of the mystical body of augusta sovereign and Queen of the Church, which not only makes it become part of the royal dignity of Jesus, but also of his life and sanctifying influence on the members of the Mystical Body.
The Latin "Queen", as "rex", derived from "regere", ie rule, govern, dominate. From the human point of view it is difficult to attribute to Mary the role of dominatrix, she was proclaimed the Lord's servant and spent a lifetime in the most humble obscurity. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, puts Mary among the Eleven, after the Ascension, raising with them in prayer; but it is she who gives orders, but Peter. Yet on that occasion she is the link that binds us to the Risen men not yet strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Mary is Queen because she is the mother of Christ the King. She is Queen because excels over all creatures, in holiness: "In her unites Whate'er of goodness is in any creature," says Dante's Divine Comedy.
All Christians see and venerate her as the overflowing generosity of divine love, which He has filled all good. But she distributes royally and maternally as received by the King; It protects children by his power acquired by virtue of its co-redemption and welcomes them with his gifts, as the King ordered that all grace steps for its hands of munificent Queen. To this the Church invites the faithful to invoke not only by the sweet name of mother, but also with what reverent queen, as in heaven greet with happiness and love angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins.Mary was crowned with the double crown of virginity and divine motherhood: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Etymology: Mary = loved by God, from the Egyptian; lady, Hebrew
Martyrology: Memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Queen, who gave birth to the Son of God, Prince of Peace, whose kingdom will have no end, and is greeted by Christians as the Queen of Heaven and Mother of Mercy. 

Saturday 15 August 2015

Feast of Assumption BVM should be Feast of the Divine Will

Volume 18. 15th August 1925
http://bookofheaven.org/
FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN
August 15
FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN
V18 - 15/08/25 - 
 ....
After this, I began to think about the feast of my Celestial Mama Assumed into Heaven; and my sweet Jesus, with a tender and moving tone, added: 

“My daughter, the true name of this Feast should be Feast of the Divine Will

It was the human will that closed Heaven, broke the bonds with its Creator, made miseries and sorrow enter the field, and put an end to the feast that the creature was to enjoy in Heaven.  Now, this creature, Queen of all, by doing the Will of the Eternal One always and in everything – even more, it can be said that Her life was Divine Will alone – opened the Heavens, bound Herself to the Eternal One, and restored in Heaven the feasts with the creature.  Every act She did in the Supreme Will was a feast that She started in Heaven, it was suns that She formed to adorn this feast, it was melodies that She sent to delight the Celestial Jerusalem. 

So, the true cause of this feast is the Eternal Will operating and fulfilled in my Celestial Mama.  It operated such prodigies in Her as to astonish Heaven and earth, chain the Eternal One with indissoluble bonds of love, and capture the Word even into Her womb.  The very Angels, enraptured, repeated among themselves:  ‘From where comes so much glory, so much honour, such greatness and prodigies never before seen, in this excelling Creature?  Yet, it is from the exile that She is coming.’  Astonished, they recognized the Will of their Creator as Life operating in Her; and, trembling, they said:  ‘Holy, Holy, Holy – honour and glory to the Will of Our Sovereign Lord.  And glory, and trice Holy – She who let this Supreme Will operate.’

So, it is my Will that, more than anything, was and is celebrated on the day of the Assumption into Heaven of my Most Holy Mother.  It was my Will alone that made Her ascend so high as to distinguish Her among all.  Everything else would have been as nothing, had She not possessed the prodigy of my Will.  It was my Will that gave Her Divine Fecundity and made Her the Mother of the Word.  It was my Will that made Her see and embrace all creatures together, becoming the Mother of all, and loving all with a love of Divine Maternity.  And making Her the Queen of all, It made Her rule and dominate.  On that day, my Will received the first honours, the glory and the abundant fruit of Its work in Creation, and It began Its feast, which It never interrupts, for the glorification of Its operating in my beloved Mother.  And even though Heaven was opened by Me, and many Saints were already in possession of the Celestial Fatherland when the Celestial Queen was assumed into Heaven, however, She Herself was the primary cause, having fulfilled the Supreme Will in everything, and therefore we waited for She who had honored It so much and contained the true prodigy of the Most Holy Will, to make the first feast for  the Supreme Volition.

  Oh! how the whole of Heaven magnified, blessed and praised the Eternal Will, upon seeing this sublime Queen enter the Empyreum, in the midst of the Celestial Court, all circumfused by the Eternal Sun of the Supreme Volition!  They saw Her all studded with the power of the Supreme Fiat; there had been not even a heartbeat in Her which did not have this Fiat impressed on it.  And, astonished, they looked at Her and said to Her:  ‘Ascend, ascend higher.  It is right that She who so much honoured the Supreme Fiat, and through whom we find ourselves in the Celestial Fatherland, have the highest throne and be our Queen.’  And the greatest honour that my Mama received, was to see the Divine Will glorified.”

 
Book of Heaven org

Friday 12 September 2014

Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary





   

 Ordinary Time: September 12th

Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary    

Daily Readings for:September 12, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, for all who celebrate the glorious Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she may obtain your merciful favor. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Old Calendar: Most Holy Name of Mary


On this day dedicated to the Holy Name of Mary let us repeat that wonderful prayer of Saint Bernard, responding to Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to “invite everyone to become a trusting child before Mary, even as the Son of God did. Saint Bernard says, and we say with him: 'Look to the star of the sea, call upon Mary … in danger, in distress, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. May her name never be far from your lips, or far from your heart … If you follow her, you will not stray; if you pray to her, you will not despair; if you turn your thoughts to her, you will not err. If she holds you, you will not fall; if she protects you, you need not fear; if she is your guide, you will not tire; if she is gracious to you, you will surely reach your destination”' (Benedict XVI, address at Heiligenkreuz Abbey, September 9, 2007). — Luciano Alimandi

Monday 8 September 2014

Feast of Nativity of Mary Community Mass 8 Sept. 2014

Mass Introduction by Fr. Raymond  
THE WOMAN 
Nativity of Mary  - Procession
Malta - Public Holiday  











    
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On Monday, 8 September 2014, 10:24, Raymond ...> wrote:

THE WOMAN

Mary has three great titles:  Virgin, Mother, and Woman.
The last of these is in a way the most fundamental.  Jesus underlines it for us at two different important junctures in his life on earth:  At the marriage feast at Cana and on Calvary itself.  On each of these occasions he, very significantly addresses her, not as Mother, which one would expect, but as WOMAN. 

There must be some great significance in this choice of address.   Surely he is here indicating to us that she is the great Woman of the primordial prophecy of Eden; the Woman who was to be joined with himself as Saviour of the world in crushing the ancient serpents head.
At Cana Mary urges him to begin his saving work, even though it was not yet time: “Woman, My hour has not yet come!”
On Calvary he appoints her as mother of us all in the person of John “Woman, Behold your son!”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-N0rv5cOuU