When you fail to measure up to your Christian privilege be not discouraged, for discouragement is a form of pride. The reason you are sad is because you looked to yourself and not to God; to your failing, not to His love. You will shake off your faults more readily when you love God than when you criticize yourself.

You have always the right to love Him in your heart, even though you do not love Him in your acts. Do not fear God, for perfect love cast out fear. God is biased in your favor! God is more lenient than you because He is perfectly good and, therefore, loves you more. Be bold enough then to know that God is on your side even when you forget to be on His.

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Oh my Jesus, I include myself in all the holy Masses which are celebrated this day throughout the world and offer them to You in union with the intentions of Your Sacred Heart. I implore You to reserve for me from each of holy Mass, Your most precious Blood to atone for my sins and their punishment. Grant me also the grace of obtaining through the merits of every holy sacrifice the release of one poor soul from the pains of purgatory, the conversion of one sinner, and also that one soul in the agony of death may obtain mercy, and that one mortal sin, which is so painful to Your Sacred Heart, may be prevented. Amen.

An offering to the Eternal Father:

Eternal Father, I offer You the Blood, the passion, and death of Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins, in aid of the holy souls in purgatory, for the needs of holy mother Church, and for the conversion of sinners. Amen.

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Ave Maria Meditations

‘Today I felt the nearness of my Mother, my heavenly Mother, although before every Holy Communion I earnestly ask the Mother of God to help me prepare my soul for the coming of her Son, and I clearly feel her protection over me. I entreat her to be so gracious as to enkindle in me the fire of God’s love, such as burned in her own pure heart at the time of the Incarnation of the Word of God.’

St. Faustina

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O Lord, we ask for a boundless confidence and trust in Your divine mercy, and the courage to accept the crosses and sufferings which bring immense goodness to our souls and that of Your Church.

Help us to love You with a pure and contrite heart, and to humble ourselves beneath Your cross, as we climb the mountain of holiness, carrying our cross that leads to heavenly glory.

May we receive You with great faith and love in Holy Communion, and allow You to act in us, as You desire, for Your greater glory.

O Jesus, most adorable heart and eternal fountain of Divine Love, may our prayer find favor before the Divine Majesty of Your Heavenly Father. Amen

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As we continue through October, the month dedicated to the Rosary, here is what one holy pope spoke about  in his final moments…

Sister Lucia in her book “Calls from Fatima”, wrote of  Blessed Pius IX’s testimony on his deathbed:  “On his death bed, he said to those around him: ‘The Rosary is a compendium of the Gospel, and gives to those who pray it those rivers of peace of which the Scriptures speak; it is the most beautiful devotion, the most abundant in grace, and the most pleasing to the Heart of Mary. My sons, let this be the testimony by which you remember me on earth.’ ” (February, 1878)

Recall also that Blessed Pius IX  proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary by means of the Bull “Ineffabilis Deus” in 1854.

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Saint Pope John Paul II made the Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary as a young man; it was a great step in his spiritual life. In his apostolic letter, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae,” the Pope noted that his personal motto “Totus Tuus” (Totally Yours) was inspired by this consecration.

The saintly pope said that reading St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary” marked a turning point in his life. He spoke about this in an October, 2000 address to the International Mariological Colloquium in Rome. Saint John Paul II noted that he had read and reread de Montfort’s book. “Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord’s Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God,” he said, “who willed to begin and fulfill the great mysteries of the history of salvation with the responsible and faithful collaboration of the humble handmaid of Nazareth.”

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To Mary, Help of Christians (Feast Day is May 24th):

Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christians,  how sweet it is to come to your feet  imploring your perpetual help.  If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children,  how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me?

Grant then to me, I implore you,  your perpetual help in all my necessities,  in every sorrow, and especially in all my temptations.

I ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering.   Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners.  Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life. 

Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians,  that having invoked you on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven. Amen.

St. John Bosco

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“Your name, O Mary, is a precious ointment, which breathes forth the odor of Divine grace. Let this ointment of salvation enter the inmost recesses of our souls.” [St. Ambrose +397]

“O great, O gentle, O most lovable Mary, Thy Holy Name cannot be spoken without inflaming the heart. To those who love Thee, if is Unspeakable consolation and joy even to think of Thee; Thou art a sweet memory to those who honor Thee.” [St. Bernard +1153]

“When I pronounce the name of Mary, I feel myself inflamed with such love and joy, that between the tears and happiness with which I pronounce this beautiful name, I feel as though my heart might leave my breast. For this sweet name is like a honeycomb dissolving in the innermost recesses of my soul.” [Blessed Henry Suso +1365]

“Your name, O Mother of God, is filled with Divine graces and blessings.”  [St. Methodius +847]

“After the most holy and adorable Name of Jesus, there is no name more glorious or more powerful than the name of Mary. At the mention of this name, the Angels rejoice and the devils tremble; through this invocation of this name, sinners obtain grace and pardon.” [St. Peter Canisius +1597]

“The name of Mary came from the treasury of the Divinity.” [St. Peter Damian +1072]

” As often as the sweet name of Mary comes to your lips, you ought to represent to yourself a masterpiece of God’s power, so perfect and so sublime that even the arm of the Almighty could not produce anything more perfect in the shape of a pure creature.”  [St. Leonard of Port Maurice +175]

“As wax melts before fire, so do the devils lose their power against those souls who remember the name of Mary and devoutly invoke it.” [St. Bonaventure + 1274]

Whenever I say Hail Mary the court of heaven rejoices and the earth is lost in wonderment and I despise the world and my heart is brim full of the love of God.  When I say Hail Mary; all my fears wilt and die and my passions are quelled. If I say Hail Mary devotion grows within me and sorrow for sin awakens. When I say Hail Mary hope is made strong in my breast and the dew of consolation falls on my soul more and more because I say Hail Mary.  And my spirit rejoices and sorrow fades away when I say Hail Mary.  Blessed Alan de la Roche  [+1475]

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A note to a spiritual directee who is despondent:

I noticed the tone of despondency in your letter, a yielding to that commonest of all the evil suggestions of the tempter. What is the use of all the struggling without any results and so much prayer followed by no apparent improvement? It is a very clever temptation, and a successful one with most souls, resulting in the giving up of the very things which are slowly but surely making them saints.

If only one could grasp this fact: every tiny thing, such as an aspiration, self denial, etc., makes us holier than we were. Just think of the thousands of tiny things done each day for God. For example each step we take when all is done for Him, every one of them has added to our merit, making us more pleasing in His site, and each moment holier.

No one can see this gradual spiritual growth, but sometimes when we have gained a big victory, we wondered where the strength came from to do it. I have watched your steady progress in perfection with the greatest joy and gratitude for your generosity and so I want to warn you not to listen to such a suggestion that your efforts have been in vain.

Your biggest fault at present, my child, is that you have not yet completely bent your will to God’s designs. I think it would please help immensely to have no wishes of our own, apart from holy ones, so that He could bend and twist and fashion us just as He pleases, knowing well that we will not even murmur. Remember this does not mean that our feelings will die also.

+Fr. Willie Doyle, S.J.

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Now, with sudden and almost blinding clarity and simplicity, I realized I had been trying to do something with my own will and intellect that was at once too much and mostly wrong. God’s will was not hidden somewhere “out there” in the situations in which I found myself; the situations themselves reveal His will for me. What He wanted was for me to accept these situations as from His hand and to let go of the reins and place myself entirely at His disposal.

He was asking of me an act of total trust, allowing for no interference or restless striving on my part, no reservations, no exceptions, no areas where I could set conditions or seem to hesitate. He was asking a complete gift of self, nothing held back. It demanded absolute faith: faith in God’s existence, in His providence in His concern for the minutest detail, in His power to sustain me, and in His love protecting me.

It meant losing the last hidden doubt, the ultimate fear that God will not be there to bear you up. It was something like that awful eternity between anxiety and belief when a child first leans back and lets go of all support whatever, only to find that the water truly holds him up and he can float motionless and totally relaxed.

+Servant of God, Fr. Walter Ciszek

To learn more of Father’s time as a prisoner in Russia and how he came to trust totally in God, see http://www.ciszek.org/About_Ciszek.html

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