Day #8: Jesus
MARY: I present Jesus to you this morning; he is my Son and he is the Son of God! He is the flower, the admirable, the prince of peace! Let your glance meet with his, … and tell me if he is beautiful, if he is lovable! … Do you not see Jesus? Jesus is Jesus because no beauty equals his, no love can describe him outside of his own love! … Kiss this divine Heart, daughter; I give it to you so that you may love him, so that you may love him in greater depth! …
Rest on this adored Heart … I give it to you so that it may appease your misery, so that it may eliminate it! Submerge yourself in this sea of mercies; I present it to you so that it may cancel your fearfulness and render you full of courage, with him. Do you not see Jesus? He is your divine gardener; it is he who loves you, who lovingly cares for you, who forgives you.
Do you not hear how many words of love that he makes you hear from that Heart?
You have contemplated him disfigured, dripping with blood, full of bitterness … has he not undergone this for your love?
You have admired him glorious and triumphant outside of the tomb … did he not triumph in order to be your resurrection and life?
Jesus, Jesus … is your spouse! He binds you with bonds of love that can never be broken; he has offered you to his Father as part of his Heart … do you not love your Jesus?
THE SOUL: O Mary, the very name of Jesus makes me melt with love … O how gentle and mild you are, O lovable Heart of Jesus! My fearfulness cannot endure before you because you are goodness … O how I love you, Jesus! You are the God-man who became man for my love and precisely to stoop all the way down to me and to save me!
Therefore expand your wounds, O Jesus; I want to heal my miseries in them! Open to me your divine Heart; I want to obtain from you love and virtue! I love you, O good Jesus, I love you and you gaze on me with eyes of mercy!
O Mary, teach this poor heart of mine unlimited trust, total abandonment to a God so good! …
Jesus! how sweet your name is, how gentle is your love, how great is your mercy!
ASPIRATION: O Jesus, I offer you my heart and my life; my Jesus, mercy!
LITTLE WORK: Call upon the holy name of Jesus during the day and for the sake of his love deprive yourself of something you really like at table.
About the Meditations
The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.
Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a “Way of the Cross”. But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)
To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy
Ave Maria!
