"Privileges of Mary". - talk of Fr. Raymond.

COMMENT:

It so happened to be the Feast of Our Lady of Aberdeen.  

What better about life of monks than life of

"Privileges of Mary".  - talk of Fr. Raymond.

     Pending Solemnity of St. Benedict - Chapter Sermon, Br. Philip......

Fw: Wednesday Community Talk about monastic life 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Donald 

Sent: Friday, 10 July 2015, 15:41     

Subject: Wednesday Community Talk about monastic life

Sent from my iPad.  

    

PRIVILEGES OF MARY by Fr. Raymond

“Who is this that comes up from the desert flowing with delights?” “Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising?” Who is this?  Who is she?  By these poetic questions the Holy Spirit seeks to inspire in us a holy curiosity about Mary, a desire to know the purpose he had in so favouring her and placing her in the centre of his plan of Grace for the salvation of mankind.

Pope John XXIII gives is a clue to the answer when he says that: “Devotion to Mary is the way par excellence of reaching an understanding of the  teaching of the Divine Master.  It is the best way of learning how to conform our lives to the vocation by which we are called the children of God.  In effect, all of what we call Mary’s Privileges are essentially connected with the personal relationship of each individual one of us with our God.  Her privileges are not just great favours bestowed on her alone to raise her above us, rather they are in fact great divine pledges deposited in her as our representative to reveal the nature of God’s promises to mankind as a whole.  She is the perfect prototype or model, as it were, whose diverse graces of union with him are the ideal and perfect fulfilment of all that each of us may hope for.  The heart of the matter is that his dealings with her and his dealings with each individual soul are in a way, essentially the same; they differ only in manner and degree.  As Mary, for example was conceived immaculate in her beginning that she might be worthy to receive her God incarnate in her womb, so also shall we, in our end, will be  brought immaculate, without spot or wrinkle, into union with the same Lord.  So Mary’s privileges raise her above us only that we, her children may reach up to be where she is and to live ourselves on that same plane.  There were some in Our Lord’s own day who tried to distinguish between Mary’s relationship to him and our own:  “ Your Mother wants to speak to you”, they said.  But he answered in that  wonderful phrase: “It is all  of you who are mother and brother and sister to me.”

If we consider the privilege which all the other privileges were either a preparation for or a consequence of, namely her Divine Motherhood; even this, which is seemingly the most inaccessible of them all, is the one which affects us the most fundamentally.  Apart from inspiring us to enter into the spirit of that Fiat by  which she embraced the Incarnation, there is also the fact that from our very infancy we have grown up knowing this lady, this woman, this simple human creature like ourselves, and calling her Mother of God.  Thus, without realising it, we have instilled into our hearts that gracious and heavenly atmosphere off family relationship between God and man.  And thus the Holy Spirit finds our hearts perfectly dis “Abba, Father”.

Indeed as the Sun shines in the skies and calls forth life from nature by the very presence of its warmth, so does Mary shine in the spiritual atmosphere, calling forth the love of God from men just by what she is.

Thus Mary’s glories and privileges are  really revelations to us of God’s attitude towards us all.  We call her the Ark of the Covenant because she is the shrine in which he has placed the manna of heaven, the pledge of the eucharist; she is the Mirror of Holiness in which is reflected the fullness of the graces destined for all mankind.  Is it any wonder that we call her our sweetness and our hope?

For example, Mary’s, bodily assumption into heaven is a pledge and guarantee that the souls of all of God’s children will be reunited again with their bodies in eternity life, the same body, yet renewed and spiritualised, as St Paul tells us.

We might say that Mary is God’s second Word.  The first Word is his expression of himself as he is in himself and issues in the living Person of his Son, who became incarnate.  The second is his expression of himself as he is reflected in us and issues in the living person of Mary, full of grace.  Again, dare we say that Jesus cannot show us, in himself, the perfect relationship he desires us to have towards himself – relationship is a two-way thing – the One to the Other.  Mary is that perfect Other whom we must strive to imitate.  Jesus is the Song that the God of love sings to us, and Mary is the perfect personification of the Song that we should strive to sing back to God.    

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)     

Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN FEAST 9th July 2015

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Homily for the Feast of our Lady of Aberdeen

BISHOP HUGH'S

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF ABERDEEN

 RCDA

 15/07/2014

In the Lady Chapel of the church of Notre Dame du Finistère in Brussels stands a statue of our Lady holding the infant Jesus. It’s made of wood, oak, and the figure of Jesus of beech. It’s just over 4 feet 4 inches high, 134 centimetres. And the statue is venerated under the title of Our Lady of Good Success.

We know the story. The statue has been dated to the 15th c. It may have begun life in the Cathedral of St Machar in Aberdeen. At the Reformation, it was protected from destruction, and in the 17th c. shipped to the Low Countries for safe-keeping. For many years it was venerated in an Augustinian monastery in Brussels. Then came the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and more destruction. Again the statue was hidden till in 1814 it found its present site in Notre Dame du Finistère.

And this, of course, is the statue known to us as Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of Aberdeen. We have never been able to retrieve the original, but since the late 19th c. many copies have been made. The oldest, I think, is the one in the entrance hall of Bishop’s House. It has been there since 1895 and came by courtesy of the Sacred Heart sisters. There are other copies here: in St Peter’s down the road, Our Lady of Aberdeen, Kincorth, St Mary’s, Blairs, St John’s, Fetternear, St Nathalan’s in Ballater and St Peter’s, Buckie. There is also an icon written by Br Aidan Hart and reproduced on today’s leaflet. Tomorrow the statue from St Peter’s will be carried through the streets of St Andrews for a Mass in the ruins of the Cathedral there. New Dawn Scotland have adopted Our Lady of Aberdeen as their patroness.

We don’t worship statues. We venerate them because of who they represent. They are signs, pointers, reminders, icons, windows on heaven. They express our devotion and stimulate it. By way of this statue we venerate the mother of Jesus. We venerate her here as Our Lady of Aberdeen or Our Lady of Good Success. She is now the principal patron of the city and diocese. Her feast day is today, and has recently become a feast for all Scotland.

That we venerate this statue, tell this story, keep this feast means something. It’s a sign, first, of the rebirth of the Catholic faith in this part of the world since the 19th c.  Late medieval Aberdeen was a place deeply devoted to our Lady. The cathedral in Old Aberdeen was then dedicated to St Mary as well as St Machar. What we know now as King’s College began as St Mary’s College, and the present King’s College Chapel was (and is) dedicated to our Lady in her Nativity. Bishop William Elphinstone, who died 500 years ago this year, had what’s called the Snowkirk built as the parish church of Old Aberdeen. The remains now enclose a cemetery. It was called the Snowkirk because dedicated to our Lady of the Snows, after the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. That church had captured the bishop’s heart during a visit and he wanted Aberdeen to have a smaller edition of it. Then there’s the Bridge over the River Dee, the Brig O’Dee, first built by Bishop Gavin Dunbar, Bishop Elphinstone’s successor. It’s Aberdeen’s link with the south. Again and again, attempts to bridge the Dee had failed. But Bishop Dunbar chose the right spot, as history has proved. He is said to have attributed this to Mary’s guidance. That is why there was a chapel to our Lady down by the river. And why when the church in Kincorth was built about fifty years ago, it was dedicated to our Lady of Aberdeen. Then, if you visit Provost Skene’s house and go up to the top of it, to what’s called the Painted Gallery, you will discover a series of paintings from the 17th c. which seem to represent the mysteries of the Rosary. Our Lady is prominent. And this from a time when Aberdeen was supposedly Protestant!

How deep run the currents of history and how surprisingly they can resurface! The ‘old faith’ has returned and, please God, like our ancestors we know that Christianity without Mary is somehow chilly and diminished. And this awareness has taken the form of devotion to Our Lady of Aberdeen. ‘Having entered deeply into the history of salvation,’ said Vatican II, ‘Mary, in a way, unites in her person and re-echoes the most important doctrines of the faith; and when she is the subject of preaching and honour she prompts the faithful to come to her Son, to his sacrifice and to the love of the Father’ (LG 65). She doesn’t distract us from the essential; she keeps us focussed.

But there’s something more. This statue / story / feast are a sign of God’s care for us. Through them, Christ is saying to us what he said to the beloved disciple in today’s Gospel: ‘behold your mother’. It’s so full of pathos and has such depths that scene! Jesus, certainly, is providing for his mother. He’s being a dutiful son. He’s keeping the 4th commandment, Honour your father and mother. The family was the only social security in those days. Now clearly, Joseph was dead by this time. And here is Mary’s only child dying before her eyes. No man to provide for her, then. So Jesus gives her his beloved disciple. He’s given the task of looking after Jesus’ mother. And in turn he takes her to his own home. But in the very same act Christ is providing for the disciple too. ‘Behold your mother’. This means he will be cared for too. He’s a disciple and if a disciple liable to suffer hostility for being such. He’s a disciple who’ll become a public witness, an apostle – no easy task. And so he’s given the companionship and tenderness and wisdom and holiness of the mother of Jesus. This is the disciple Jesus loved. And this gift of his mother is a sign of that love. And so it is for us. Our Lady of Aberdeen, of Good Success – this statue / story / feast – can be read as a sign Christ is looking at and loving us. He’s doing now what he did then. He’s entrusting us to one another. He’s seeing us as disciples, as witnesses and apostles. There’s a mission for us, here and now, and Mary will be beside us as we look for it and live it. ‘He took her to his own home’ – and into his heart and life. Let’s do the same: we can only be enriched and comforted and strengthened if we do.

Luisa Piccarreta. Our Lady in the month of May

COMMENT:
Dear Bob,
Thank you for your kind interest.
So far not successful of the source of Divine Will books.
Available is the ATTACHMENT of 'Our Lady of the month of May', each day, as sent to you. Also the URL below.

Ejaculatory Prayer:

My Mama, enclose the Divine Will in my soul, that It may take Its First Place, and form in it Its Throne and Its Dwelling.

In  these May Weeks we experience the flowers within and without.

fr. Donald
E.g.; DAY ONE

          

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bob ....
To: Donald ...
Sent: Wednesday, 20 May 2015, 8:42
Subject: Divine will books

Dear Father Donald,

 

I hope you are well can you advise me where i can obtain the above books i have been following and reading the items on your blog with great enthusiasm especially the one dedicated to Our Lady in the month of May,

 

God Bless  Robert

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will

by the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta
little daughter of the Divine Will

     

   http://luisapiccarreta.co/?page_id=2868  

Meditations for the Month of May,

for the House of the Divine Will

May 6, 1930

Luisa Piccarreta

Fiat!!!

J.M.J.

Maternal Appeal of the Queen of Heaven

Dearest daughter, I feel the irresistible need to descend from Heaven to make you My Maternal visits. If you assure Me of your filial love and faithfulness, I will remain always with you in your soul, to be your Teacher, Model, Example and Most Tender Mother.
         ..........

Day One

The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. The First Step of the Divine Will in the Immaculate Conception of the Celestial Mama.

The soul to her Immaculate Queen:

Here I am, O Most Sweet Mama, prostrate before You. Today is the first day of the month of May, consecrated to You, in which all Your children want to offer

You their little flowers to prove to You their love, and to bind Your Love to Love them; and I see You as though descending from the Celestial Fatherland, attended by Angelic Cohorts, to receive the beautiful roses, the humble violets, the chaste lilies of Your children, and requite them with Your Smiles of Love, with Your Graces and Blessings. And pressing the gifts of Your children to Your Maternal Womb, You bring them with You to Heaven, to keep them as pledges and crowns for the moment of their death.

Celestial Mama, in the midst of many, I, who am the littlest, the neediest of your children, want to come up onto Your Maternal lap, to bring You, not flowers and roses, but a sun each day. But the Mama must help her daughter, giving me Your Lessons of Heaven, to teach me how to form these Divine Suns, that I may give You the Most Beautiful Homage and the Most Pure Love. Dear Mama, You have understood what Your daughter wants: I want to be taught by You how to Live of Divine Will. And I, transforming my acts and all of myself into Divine Will according to Your Teachings, each day, will bring You, onto Your Maternal lap, all my acts changed into Suns.

Lesson of the Queen of Heaven:  

Blessed daughter, your prayer wounded My Maternal Heart, and as it draws Me from Heaven, I am already close to My daughter, to give her My Lessons, all of Heaven.

Look at Me, dear daughter: thousands of Angels surround Me and, reverent, are all in waiting, to hear Me speak of that Divine Fiat whose Fount I possess, more than anyone; and I know Its Admirable Secrets, Its Infinite Joys, Its Indescribable Happiness and Its Incalculable Value. And to hear My daughter calling Me, because she wants My Lessons on the Divine Will, is the Greatest Feast for Me—the Purest Joy; and if you listen to My Lessons, I will call Myself fortunate to be your Mama. O! How I yearn to have a daughter who wants to Live only of Divine Will. Tell Me, O daughter, will you make Me content? Will you give Me your heart, your will, all of yourself, into My Maternal hands, that I may prepare you, dispose you, fortify you, empty you of everything, so as to be able to fill you completely with the Light of the Divine Will, and form in you Its Divine Life? Place your head upon the Heart of your Celestial Mama, and be attentive in listening to Me, so that My Sublime Lessons may make you decide never to do your will, but always that of God.

My daughter, listen to Me: it is My Maternal Heart that Loves you very much, and wants to pour Itself upon you. Know that I have you here, inscribed in My Heart, and that I love you as My true daughter. But I feel a sorrow, because I do not see you as similar to your Mama. Do you know what renders us dissimilar? Ah! It is your will that takes away from you the Freshness of Grace, the Beauty that Enamors your Creator, the Strength that Conquers and Bears everything, the Love that Consumes everything. In sum, it is not that Will which animates your Celestial Mama.

You must know that I knew My human will only to keep it Sacrificed in Homage to My Creator. My Life was all of Divine Will; from the first instant of My Conception, I was molded, warmed and placed into Its Light, which Purified my human seed with Its Power, in such a way that I was Conceived without original sin. Therefore, if My Conception was Spotless and so Glorious as to form the Honor of the Divine Family, it was only because the Omnipotent Fiat poured Itself upon My Seed, and I was Conceived Pure and Holy. So, if the Divine Will had not poured Itself upon My Seed more than a tender mother, in order to prevent the effects of original sin, I would have encountered the sad destiny of the other creatures, of being conceived with original sin. Therefore, the Primary Cause was, entirely, the Divine Will; to It be Honor, Glory, Thanksgiving, for My having been Conceived without original sin.

Now, daughter of My Heart, listen to your Mama: banish your human will; content yourself with dying rather than concede to it one act of life. Your Celestial Mama would have been content with dying thousands and thousands of times, rather than do one single act of My will; don’t you, then, want to imitate Me? Ah! If you keep it sacrificed in honor of your Creator, the Divine Will will take the First Step in your soul, and you will feel molded with a Celestial Aura, Purified and Warmed, in such a way as to feel the seeds of your passions being annihilated; and you will feel placed in the First Steps of the Kingdom of the Divine Will. Therefore, be attentive; if you are faithful in listening to Me, I will guide you, I will lead you by the hand along the Interminable Ways of the Divine Fiat; I will keep you sheltered under My blue mantle, and you will be My Honor, My Glory, My Victory and yours.

The soul:

Immaculate Virgin, take me on Your Maternal knees, and be my Mama. With Your Holy hands, take possession of my will; purify it, mold it, warm it by the touch of Your Maternal fingers. Teach me to Live only of Divine Will.

Little Sacrifice:

Today, to honor Me, from the morning, and in all your actions, you will place your will into My hands, saying to Me: “My Mama, You Yourself offer the sacrifice of my will to my Creator.”

Ejaculatory Prayer:

My Mama, enclose the Divine Will in my soul, that It may take Its First Place, and form in it Its Throne and Its Dwelling.

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)     
Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

The Annunciation of the Lord - Solemnity

COMMENT:     

Sermon in the Community Chapter
by Brother Barry.

 LIPPI FRA FILIPPO / Annunciation

Tuesday, 24 March 2015 THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD Solemnity           In Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of salvation on behalf of men and the Annunciation heralds the beginning of our salvation.          By Mary's obedient "Fiat," the earth has become heaven. "In Jesus, God has placed, in the midst of barren, despairing mankind,a new beginning which is not a product of human history but a gift from above" (Pope Benedict XVI).          "Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God's grace."                                                                                     (Catechism of the Catholic Church) God our Father, your Word became man and was born of the Virgin Mary. May we become more like Jesus Christ, whom we acknowledge as our redeemer, God and man. We ask this through our Lourd Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. (Opening prayer)                             Ecce Ancilla Domini                               Nunraw Liturgy     Ecce Ancilla Domini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Ancilla_Domini Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Ecce Ancilla Domini! ... the Vulgate text of the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, describing the Annunciation, where Mary accepts ...

Fr. Raymond, 8th December - Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (2)

Solemnity Community Mass, 

Monday 8 December 2014

Fr. Raymond. Mass Homily

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
OF MARY

St Bonaventure has a book entitled "The Glories of Mar," and among these glories we should surely count her great Privilege of being conceived immaculate. She never was touched by that original sin that infected the rest of us lesser mortals when we first entered this world. I wonder how many of us, when we first gave some thought to this doctrine, thought it a bit unfair in a way. We could so easily be tempted to think - it's alright for her! She never knew the temptations of the flesh the way we all do. - It's alright for her! She never was stirred by feelings of pride or lust, or envy or impatience or whatever!

But these thoughts are far from doing justice to Mary. Consider for a moment our first parents Adam and Eve. Just like Mary, they too were created immaculate, pure and spotless. It was only when they were put to the test and failed that they fell under the burden of original sin. Would any of us dare to think that, in their circumstances, we might have done better? It's also far from justice to Mary that we should think that she was never put to the test; that life was just a bed of roses for her; that she never had to undergo the every-day troubles and trials of life that the rest of us have to put up with. It's not just because she stood beneath the Cross of her dying Son that she deserves the name of Mother of Sorrows.

We need only think how from the very first moment of the conception of Jesus her trials multiplied. There was, from that very first moment, the agonizing problem of confronting Joseph with the news of her pregnancy. Can anyone imagine a situation more stressful for a young engaged woman than to tell her fiance that she is with child and that the child was not his? Then there followed the edict of Caesar and the forced journey to Bethlehem when her time was near to giving birth. The sheer physical stress of such a situation must have added greatly to the inevitable mental stress. Then there was the desperate search for a decent place for her to give birth; and all this climaxed in her having to give birth in a stable, of all places. You and I can now see what a wonderful and meaningful thing that was. But how did it seem to Mary and Joseph at the  time? Only their great faith and trust in Divine Providence could have saved them from sinking into despair.

Then their joy at the birth of the child was soon overshadowed by the threat to the child's life from Herod; then there was the panic of the flight into Egypt. Then there was the life in exile there, so far from family and friends, and especially with no loving grandparents nearby to dote over the child.

But besides all these great and rather dramatic trials there were the ordinary trials of village life in Nazareth when they eventually did manage to return. She was spared none of them. We can be sure that the devil saw to that! There would be the difficulty of awkward neighbours; the bullying of Jesus by older village boys perhaps. There would be the constant call upon Mary's time and energy by those who recognised a willing spirit. Here was someone unable to say no to any reasonable or even unreasonable request, someone unable to refuse help to anyone in need; not to mention her own spontaneous generosity. She would always be the first to offer her services without even being asked.

Mary's immaculate conception then was no mere honour and sinecure without any responsibilities. Noblesse Oblige, and we can be sure that Mary lived up to and fulfilled that dictum more than any other human being apart from her Son.

28th November - Saint Catherine Laboure - Independent Catholic News

The Miraculous Medal also bears the words, "O Mary! conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"   

28th November - Saint Catherine Laboure - Independent Catholic News

28th November - Saint Catherine Laboure

Posted: Friday, November 28, 2014 12:54 am

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Nun and visionary. Founder of the devotion of the Miraculous Medal. St Catherine came from a large farming family near Dijon in France. Born in 1806, she looked after her widowed father and later worked as a waitress in her uncle's cafe in Paris, before joining the Sisters of Charity at the age of 14. She lived in the community in Reuilly, caring for the elderly in a rest home and tending chickens. Her superiors wrote that she was a 'quiet and dull' person. Until her last years, few people realised that she led an extraordinary inner life. Through a series of dreams and visions, she accurately foresaw many historical events in France. In one dream she saw a picture of Mary standing on a globe with shafts of light coming from her hands with the inscription underneath reading: 'Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee.' On the reverse side was a capital M with the cross above and two hearts below. Catherine believed she was ordered to have this produced as a medal. She spoke with her superiors and, in 1832, the archbishop allowed 1,500 to be minted. Later an account of the medal's origins was published. A canonical review in 1836 declared them authentic. In 1842 a Jewish man from Alsace, Alphonsus Ratisbone, inspired by the devotion to the medal, became a Christian and founded the Fathers and Sisters of Sion. From that time onwards, the devotion to the Miraculous Medal spread around the world. Catherine died on 31 December 1876. Her body remains incorrupt in the convent chapel at Rue de Bac, Paris. She was canonised in 1947. Properties of the medal[edit] According to the verbal process of the investigation on February 16, 1836, the medal is supposed to be oval in shape. It also bears the words, "O Mary! conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"; these start at Mary's right hand, continue over her head, and end at her left hand.[8] According to an account written by Catherine's own hand, Mary was clothed in a robe of auroral light and her robe had a high neck and plain sleeves. According to Catherine's notes, the medal should also have half a globe upon which Mary's feet rest, hands raised up to her waist, fingers filled with diamond rings of different sizes giving off rays of light, and a frame slightly oval with golden letters saying, "O Mary! conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!" Her fingers each had three rings and the largest stones emitted the most brilliant rays. She added that some of the diamonds did not give off rays