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Ave Maria Meditations

LITANY TO JESUS IN THE WOMB OF MARY:

Response to all:  Have mercy on us.

Jesus, knit so wonderfully in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, uniquely human from the moment of conception in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, present at Creation, created in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, through whom the world was made, formed in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, Word made flesh, taking on a human body in the womb of Mary,

Jesus, revealed by the Father, concealed in the womb of Mary, (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Am I Not Here Who Am Your Mother?

Ave Maria Meditations

The Immaculate Conception

Eternal Love, Spirit of Light and Truth, make a way into my poor mind and allow me to penetrate, as far as it is possible to a wretched creature like myself, into that abyss of grace, of purity, and of holiness, that I may acquire a love of God that is continually renewed, a love of God who, from all eternity planned the greatest of all the masterpieces created by his hands: the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

From all eternity Almighty God took delight in what was to be the most perfect work of his hands, and anticipated this wonderful plan with an outpour­ing of his grace. Man, created innocent, fell by disobeying him; the mark of original sin remained engraved on his fore­head and that of his progeny who will bear its conse­quences until the end of time.

A woman brought ruin, and a woman was to bring salvation. The one, being tempted by a serpent, stamped the mark of sin on the human race; the other was to rise through grace, pure and immacu­late. She would crush the head of the serpent who was helpless before her and who struggled in vain under her heel; for she was conceived without sin, and through her came grace to mankind.

Protected with grace by him who was to be the Savior of mankind that had fallen into sin, she escaped all shadow of evil. She sprang from the mind of God as a pure ray of light, and will shine like a morning star over the human race that turns to her. She will be the sure guide who will direct our steps toward the Divine Sun which is Jesus Christ. He makes her radiant with divine splendor and points to her as our model of purity and sanctity. No creature surpasses her, but all creation defers to her through the grace of him who made her immaculate. He whom she was to carry in her womb was the Son of God participating with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the glory of her conception.

Clothed in light from the moment of her concep­tion, she grew in grace and comeliness. After Almighty God, she is the most perfect of creatures; more pure than the angels; God is indeed well pleased in her, since she most resembles him and is the only worthy repository of his secrets. In the natural order she preceded her Divine Child, Our Lord, but in the divine order Jesus, the Divine Sun, arose before her, and she received from him all grace, all purity, and all beauty.

All is darkness compared to the pure light that renews all creation through him whom she bore in her womb, as the dew on the rose. The Immaculate Conception is the first step in our salvation. Through this singular and unique gift Mary received a profusion of Divine Grace, and through her more.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Ave Maria meditations

Novena in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Ave Maria Meditations

The Spiritual Maternity of Mary 

The first basis of filial piety towards Mary is evidently her spiritual motherhood to Christians. Nothing is more common than the name of Mother given to the Blessed Virgin. And nothing is rarer, one could almost say, than a perfect understanding of the meaning of this title. How many souls, even those devoted to the Virgin, only hold erroneous or, in either case, very incomplete ideas about the spiritual maternity of Mary! It is, therefore, necessary to establish first of all the true basis of that maternity. We have tried to do this elsewhere. Here it will suffice to recall the most indispensable ideas. 

Some of the faithful imagine that we call Mary by this name of Mother because she loves us with an incomparable love-every mother loves, but every person who loves is not a mother. Or because she incessantly nourishes our souls with graces, but is a simple wet-nurse a mother? Or again, because Jesus, before dying, said to each one of us in the person of John: “Behold your mother”; but if the maternity of Mary depends on that word alone, it is an adoptive maternity-not a real one. 

For Mary to be truly our Mother, she must have given us our supernatural life. And that is precisely what she did. Our supernatural life is the life of Jesus within us. “For me to live is Christ,” says St. Paul. Mary has given us Christ; she gave Him to us precisely in order to enable us to live His life. She is, therefore, our Mother.  (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Radiant Dawn of our salvation,

Ave Maria Meditations

 Ave Maria Meditations

THE MOTHER OF GOD  

Prayer: O Holy Mother of God, make my heart one with yours, which was ever one with the Heart of God !

The divine maternity is the source of all Mary’s privileges. Mary, the Immaculate One, the beloved daughter of the Father, is also the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, whose power overshadowed her because she had been chosen the Mother of the Incarnate Word. All Mary’s greatness glory are explained in the light of her divine maternity; furthermore, her very existence is explained by her predestination to this high office. If God had not decreed that the Incarnation of His Son should take place in the womb of a virgin, we should never have had that masterpiece of grace and loveliness, the Most Blessed Virgin; we should never have had her smile or her maternal caresses. Therefore, love and honor Mary because she is the Mother of God, Mother of Jesus; and loving her in her relation to God, devotion to her only makes our love for God, for Jesus, deeper and more tender.

“Mater Dei, Mater Creatoris, Mother of God, Mother of our Creator”, we invoke her in the litany. These two titles which seem to be contradictory, actually express a unique synthesis because Mary, although a creature, is really the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God’s Son to whom she has given a human body: the fruit of her flesh and blood is the Son of God in whom and by whom all things were created. Here we understand more than ever how Mary’s dignity reaches the threshold of the infinite.

“God could make a bigger world or a wider sky, but He could not raise a pure creature higher than Mary; for the dignity of Mother of God is the highest dignity that can be conferred on a a creature. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

PRESENCE OF GOD:

O Mary, my Mother, teach me to live hidden with you in the shadow of God.

MEDITATION:

The liturgy enthusiastically celebrates Mary’s Nativity and makes it one of the most appealing feasts of Marian devotion. We sing in today’s Office: “Thy Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, brings joy to the whole world, because from you came forth the Sun of Justice, Christ, our God.”

Mary’s birth is a prelude to the birth of Jesus because it is the initial point of the realization of the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of mankind. How could the birthday of the Mother of the Redeemer pass unnoticed in the hearts of the redeemed? The Mother proclaims the Son, making it known that He is about to come, that the divine promises, made centuries before, are to be fulfilled. The birth of Mary is the dawn of our redemption; her appearance projects a new light over all the human race: a light of innocence, of purity, of grace, a resplendent presage of the great light which will inundate the world when Christ, “lux mundi ” the Light of the World, appears.

Mary, preserved from sin in anticipation of Christ’s merits, not only announces that the Redemption is at hand, but she bears the first fruits of it within herself; she is the first one redeemed by her divine Son. Through her, all ­pure and full of grace, the Blessed Trinity at last fixes on earth a look of complacency, finding in her alone a creature in whom the infinite beauty of the Godhead can be reflected.

(more…)

One Minute Meditation

DEDICATED TO THE WOMAN I LOVE:

The Woman whom even God dreamed of

Before the world was made;

The Woman of whom I was born

At a cost of pain and labor at a Cross;

The Woman who, though no priest,

Could yet on Calvary’s Hill breathe,

“This is my Body; This is my Blood”

For none save her gave Him human life.

The Woman who guides my pen,

Which falters so with words

In telling of the Word.

The Woman who, in a world of Reds,

Shows forth the blue of hope.

Accept these dried grapes of thoughts

From this poor author, who has no wine;

And with Cana’s magic and thy Son’s Power

Work a miracle and save a soul

Forgetting not my own.

The Servant of God: Archbishop Fulton Sheen