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Ave Maria Meditations

Mary’s Maternal Mediation  

God and his Christ make use of Mary in this sense, that they make all the graces which they destine for us pass through her … By using her as intermediary, they temper their action all the more with humanity, without in any way diminishing its divine efficacy. They make Mary live by the life we are to live by. She is first filled to overflowing with it. Grace is pre­formed in her and receives in her the imprint of a special beauty. All grace and all graces come to us thus canalized a1nd distributed by her, impregnated with that special sweetness which she imparts to all she touches and all she does.  

By her action Mary enters therefore into our lives as bearer of the divine. In the whole course of our lives, from the cradle and before it to the grave and beyond it, there is nothing of grace in which she had no part. She shapes us to the likeness of Jesus … She leaves her mark on everything and adds to the perfection of what passes through her hands. I have said that we are sustained by her prayer: we are similarly sustained by her action and, if one may say it, have our spiritual being in her hands. Every Christian is a child of Mary, but a child is not worthy of the name unless it is formed by its mother.

Fr. Pierre Rogatien Bernard, O.P.

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Ave Maria Meditations

 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now your Spirit over the earth. Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster, and war.  May the Lady of All Nations, the Blessed Virgin Mary, be our Advocate.  Amen.

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Ave Maria Meditations

Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and thanks for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent! Receive our gratitude, and by your prayers obtain the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to make our peace with God.

Holy Mary, help the miserable, strengthen the discouraged, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God. May all who venerate you feel now your help and protection. Be ready to help us when we pray, and bring back to us the answers to our prayers. Make it your continual concern to pray for the people of God, for you were blessed by God and were made worthy to bear the Redeemer of the world, who lives and reigns forever. Amen.

+ St. Augustine (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Queen of Heaven, Rejoice

Regina cæli lætare, Alleluia; Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia; Resurrexit, sicut dixit, Alleluia: Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia. 

Queen of Heaven rejoice, Alleluia; For the Son thou wast privileged to bear, Alleluia; is risen as He said, Alleluia: Pray for us to God, Alleluia.

This ancient Latin hymn and prayer is sung or recited at the Angelus during the entire Easter season, until Pentecost, replacing the usual Angelus prayers. The hymn reveals the intimate bond uniting the Virgin Mother of God to her Divine Son, who glorifies her, and with whom she intercedes for mankind, as she did at Cana. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

On May 13th, 1917, Our Lady made the first of six apparitions to three little sheperd children…

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FATIMA

1. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?

The Message of Fatima consists of a number of precise predictions, requests, warnings and promises concerning the Faith and the world which were conveyed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children–Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco–in a series of apparitions at Fatima, Portugal from May to October 1917.

2. WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?
You should believe the Message of Fatima because:

(1) It was confirmed by an unprecedented public miracle, the Miracle of the Sun, which occurred at precisely the moment Lucia said it would. More than 70,000 people, including Masons, communists and atheists, saw the sun, contrary to all cosmic laws, twirl in the sky, throw off colors and descend to earth. The event was reported in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times.

(2) All of the Popes since the Fatima Miracle have recognized that the Message is authentic. Several Popes have gone to Fatima in person, including Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. John Paul II said at Fatima in 1982 that “the Message of Fatima imposes an obligation on the Church.”

(3) Many other miracles have been performed by God authenticating the Fatima Message as coming from Him, not only at the time of the Miracle of the Sun, October 13, 1917, but down the years to the present day, miracles of conversions and cures which science cannot explain by natural means.

(4) The Message of Fatima accurately predicted world events, which proves that it is a true prophecy. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

I am your Mother of Perpetual Help and I am the Mediatrix of all graces for my dear children. My eyes of mercy are turned toward you. My Heart is open to you. My hands are ever raised in prayer for you, or open over you, to shower abundant graces upon you and upon those for whom you pray.

I am pleased that you want to imitate my son Saint John in making your home with me, in opening to me every part of your life. In this way, you allow me to act upon you, but also you allow me to act with you and through you.

My presence and my action are revealed in gentleness, in sweetness, and in mercy. I want you to resemble me spiritually just as my Jesus resembled me physically. Jesus, looking at me, saw the perfect reflection of all the dispositions and virtues of His Adorable Heart. I, looking at you, want to see my own Immaculate Heart mirrored in yours. I want to communicate to you and to all my priest sons the virtues of my Heart.  By consecrating yourself to me, you have made this possible, and already my transformation of you has begun. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

How Friar Leo saw a terrible vision in a dream

ONCE, in a dream, Friar Leo beheld a vision of the making ready of the Divine judgment. He beheld the Angels making music with trumpets and divers instruments, and calling together a marvellous great crowd in a meadow. And on one side of the meadow was set a ladder all rosy red, which reached from earth even unto heaven, and on the other side of the meadow was set another ladder all white, which descended from heaven to earth. On the top of the red ladder, Christ appeared a Lord offended and exceeding wrath. And St. Francis was nigh unto Christ but a few steps lower down; and he came farther down the ladder, and with a loud voice and great fervour called and said: “Come ye, my friars, come confidently, fear not, come, draw nigh unto the Lord, for He calleth you”. At the voice of St. Francis and at his bidding, the friars went and climbed up the red ladder with great confidence. And, when they were all thereon, some fell off the third step, and some off the fourth step, others off the fifth and the sixth; and at the last all fell, so that there remained not one upon the ladder. And so great ruin of his friars, St. Francis, as a pitiful father, was moved to compassion, and besought the Judge for his sons, that He would receive them to His mercy. And Christ showed His wounds all bloody, and said unto St. Francis: “This have thy friars done unto Me”.

And St. Francis delayed not, but, even as he interceded, came down certain steps, and cried unto the friars that were fallen from the red ladder and said: “Come ye, rise up, my sons and friars, be of good courage and despair not, but run to the white ladder and climb up it, for by it ye shall be received into the Kingdom of Heaven; run, friars, through paternal admonishment, to the white ladder”. And on the top of the ladder appeared the glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, all pitiful and kind, and welcomed those friars; and without any difficulty they entered into the eternal kingdom. To the praise of Christ. Amen.

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Ave Maria Meditations

“See, My daughter, My heart surrounded by thorns which ungrateful men pierce at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude… Say to all those who, for five months, on the first Saturday, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep Me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, in a spirit of reparation, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.”

The confession may be made on the First Saturday itself or some days before or after the First Saturday. This reparatory devotion was requested to atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1. attacks upon Mary’s Immaculate Conception;
2. attacks against her Perpetual Virginity;
3. attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept Her as the Mother of all mankind;
4. for those who try to publicly implant in children’s hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother, and
5. for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.

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Ave Maria Meditations

The fairest flower of them all…

We honor the Mother of God and we have put all our hope in her because we know she can do everything. And do you know she can do everything? Her Son does not refuse anything she wishes, because He has not been able to give back to her what He took on loan from her.  He took His flesh from her, and made it divine, but He did not give it back. This is why we feel ourselves so safe in the garden of the Mother of God.

A Greek Orthodox monk to Pope Benedict XVI

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Ave Maria Meditations

This month we will concentrate on Our Lady!

 ”The mood of springtime informs the church’s interior; nature’s blossoming, the warm air of May evenings, human gladness in a world that is renewing itself — all these things enter in. Veneration of Mary has its place in this very particular atmosphere, for she, the Virgin, shows us faith under its youthful aspect, as God’s new beginning in a world that has grown old. In her we see the Christian life set forth as a youthfulness of the heart, as beauty and a waiting readiness for what is to come.”

-- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above

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Ave Maria Meditations

“I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, O most loving Jesus, through Mary Thy most holy and Immaculate Mother.

23. God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas (maria). He gathered all his graces together and called them Mary (Maria). The great God has a treasury or storehouse full of riches in which he has enclosed all that is beautiful, resplendent, rare, and precious, even his own Son. This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the saints call the “treasury of the Lord”. From her fullness all men are made rich.

24. God the Son imparted to his mother all that he gained by his life and death, namely, his infinite merits and his eminent virtues. He made her the treasurer of all his Father had given him as heritage. Through her he applies his merits to his members and through her he transmits his virtues and distributes his graces. She is his mystical channel, his aqueduct, through which he causes his mercies to flow gently and abundantly.

25. God the Holy Spirit entrusted his wondrous gifts to Mary, his faithful spouse, and chose her as the dispenser of all he possesses, so that she distributes all his gifts and graces to whom she wills, as much as she wills, how she wills and when she wills. No heavenly gift is given to men which does not pass through her virginal hands. Such indeed is the will of God, who has decreed that we should have all things through Mary, so that, making herself poor and lowly,, and hiding herself in the depths of nothingness during her whole life, she might be enriched, exalted and honored by almighty God. Such are the views of the Church and the early Fathers.

28. Mary has authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven. As a reward for her great humility, God gave her the power and the mission of assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock …” (Rev. 3:20)

It is true. I stand at the door of your heart, day and night. Even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be Me, I am there. I await even the smallest sign of your response, even the least whispered invitation that will allow Me to enter. 

And I want you to know that whenever you invite Me, I do come -always, without fail. Silent and unseen I come, but with infinite power and love, and bringing the many gifts of My Spirit. I come with My mercy, with My desire to forgive and heal you, and with a love for you beyond your com­prehension – a love every bit as great as the love I have received from the Father-”As much as the Father has loved me, I have loved you” (Jn 15:10). I come longing to con­sole you and give you strength, to lift you up and bind all your wounds. I bring you My light, to dispel your darkness and all your doubts. I come with My power, that I might carry you and all of your burdens; with My grace, to touch your heart and transform your life; and My peace I give to still your soul.

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Ave Maria Meditations

It is the little and the poor who come to Me in the Sacrament of My Love
and who console My Heart by their presence to Me.
It has always been so.

The proud and the worldly have no time for Me
because I am hidden,
because I am poor,
because I am silent
in the Sacrament of My Love.

But those who are themselves humble and poor are drawn to the humility and to the poverty of My Eucharistic Presence.
I welcome them.
I take comfort in their presence,
and I recognize them as those blessed of My Father
to whom belongs already the Kingdom of Heaven.

From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest

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Ave Maria Meditations

To You, O God, Fountain of Mercy, I come, a sinner. May You wash away my impurity.

O Sun of Justice, give sight to the blind. O Eternal Healer, cure the wounded. O King of Kings, restore the despoiled. O Mediator of God and man, reconcile the sinful. O Good Shepherd, lead back the straying. O God, have pity on the wretched, show leniency to the guilty, bestow life on the dead, reform the impious, and give the balm of grace to the hard of heart.

O most merciful God, call back the one who flees, draw back the one who resists, lift up the one who falls, support the one who stands, and accompany the one who walks.

Do not forget those who forget You. Do not desert those who desert You. Do not despise those who sin against You. For in sinning, I have offended You, my God.

I have harmed my neighbor; I have not even spared myself injury. I have sinned, 0 my God, against You, almighty Father, because of my weakness; against You, all-knowing Son, because of my ignorance; against You, merciful Holy Spirit, because of my malice. Thus have I offended You, most high Trinity.

(more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

From the Private Notes of St. Bernadette Soubirous:

O Jesus and Mary, let my entire consolation in this world be to love you and to suffer for sinners. I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them.

I must die to myself continually and accept trials without complaining. I work, I suffer and I love with no other witness than his heart. Anyone who is not prepared to suffer all for the Beloved and to do his will in all things is not worthy of the sweet name of Friend, for here below, Love without suffering does not exist.

O my Mother, to you I sacrifice all other attachments so that my heart may belong entirely to you and to my Jesus.I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home. There I shall find my Mother in all the splendor of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety.

From this moment on, anything concerning me is no longer of any interest to me. I must belong entirely to God and God alone; never to myself.

Love overcomes, love delights. Those who love the Sacred Heart rejoice. Jesus, my God, I love you above all things. O Jesus, I would rather die a thousand deaths than be unfaithful to you!

+ St. Bernadette

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