The Purity of Mary...

It is well known, and is daily experienced by the clients of Mary, that her powerful name gives the particular strength necessary to overcome temptations against purity.
~ St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Some feel they are forever damaged, as if they can no longer be counted as among the pure. This is not so, however, for Christ our Lord holds the crown of purity before us all, desiring to place it on our heads, if only we should trust, if only we should try our best, if only we should love him more than what our eyes might cast themselves upon each day.

Pope Pius XII taught that from all eternity God 'regards Mary with a most favorable and unique affection.' We should understand that as God regards Mary in such a way, he especially desires to grant her every prayer. Let us fly to our Mother, desirous of her loving intercession, that she turn her merciful and kind gaze upon us, and whisper in her Son's ear of our urgent needs.

GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) - On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which he proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption: "Mary, the immaculate perpetually Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven."


This was truly a wonderful event, a moment in which the faithful around the world received with certainty a ruling from the Chair of Peter, one which formally proclaimed what was already held and guarded in the deposit of faith the Catholic Church received from Christ through the apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In reflecting on the sublime wonders of the Assumption and the life of the Mother of God, rays of discerning light flood the intellect, illuminating many aspects of our earthly lives.


We live in an age in which there exists immense forces within our culture which labor to draw us into conformity with what is often described as dark and evil. There can be no doubt that the diabolical nature of these struggles with temptation and bad example are often orchestrated, to some degree, by the Father of Lies: that powerful fallen angel whose pride swelled to perhaps the greatest depths of corruption. While these temptations we face are not entirely new, they are magnified by modern culture in powerfully new ways. One such detrimental, negative element of contemporary culture, heavily engrained in the West, is impurity.


St. Paul reminds us that "All of us once lived . . . in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest" (Eph 2:3). It's probably safe to say that every adult is, to some degree, wounded by impurity, whether giving in significantly to the many temptations toward impurity, or in being confronted by the various malignant influences impurity promotes in the world.


Those who have, by His Majesty's wondrous grace, arrived at a point of heartfelt repentance and conversion often anguish over their past life, recounting with misery the many self-inflicted wounds of impurity, bringing to themselves no small suffering. This is so by virtue of a greater closeness to God which always illumines our own sinfulness. As our Father draws us to himself by his loving providence, he nourishes an awareness of our limitations and failures, that we may fly all the more securely into his arms, where we may quietly rest in his protective love.


Some feel they are forever damaged, as if they can no longer be counted as among the pure. This is not so, however, for Christ our Lord holds the crown of purity before us all, desiring to place it on our heads, if only we should trust, if only we should try our best, if only we should love him more than what our eyes might cast themselves upon each day. What has happened in the past is gone, borne away by the healing graces of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Now our Lord's hands softly reach toward us, the gleam of purity reflected in his eyes, an imperishable crown of immeasurable worth rests in his fingers; a gift he waits to give; a gift of which only our Lord himself can make us worthy to receive.


St. Paul reminds us of the new life we are given, a free and merciful gift from God: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:3-7).


The Virgin Mother: Model Of Purity Supreme


Those who desire to receive the crown of purity from our Lord should not hesitate to fly to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose tender love and concerned intercessory help is never withheld from her children. It is our Virgin Mother who will take us into her worthy hands, guide us toward her Son, and lower the glorious crown upon our heads.


If we should state that the Virgin Mary is the greatest Christian who ever lived, we would be correct; yet such a statement does little to relate the indescribable beauty of her dedication to her Son, her eagerness to suffer for the will of God, her complete trust, and her total purity of heart which far surpasses our present understanding. There is simply no better model of human purity than our sweet Virgin Mother, who exists as Queen of Heaven, raised in heavenly glory above all the angels and saints.


St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes of the Virgin Mother, "Let us honor [Mary] for the purity of her body, the holiness of her life. Let us marvel at her  fruitful virginity, and venerate her divine Son. Let us extol her freedom from concupiscence in conceiving and from all pain in bearing. Let us proclaim her to be reverenced by the Angels, desired by the nations, foretold by the patriarchs and prophets, chosen out of all and preferred before all. Let us magnify her as a channel of grace, the mediatrix of salvation, the restorer of ages, and as exalted above the choirs of angels to the very heights of Heaven."
In Munificentissimus Deus Pope Pius XII taught that from all eternity God "regards Mary with a most favorable and unique affection." We should understand that as God regards Mary in such a way, he especially desires to grant her every prayer. If we seek purity, it is the Virgin Mary whose intercession will, through the love of her Son, win for us the graces of which we are in such urgent need. She is indeed a "channel of grace" as St. Bernard wrote.
Pius XII tells us that when the fullness of time came, God put the wondrous plan of his "providence into effect in such a way that all the privileges and prerogatives he had granted to her in his sovereign generosity were to shine forth in her in a kind of perfect harmony" (MD, 3).
The Virgin Mother's privileges are truly sublime wonders. As St. Luke records in his gospel, the angel Gabriel first addressed Mary with these words: "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." Though Mary "was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be," Gabriel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God" (see Lk 1:26-30).
The Council of Trent declared that a "special privilege from God" was "given to the Blessed Virgin." In 1854 Pope Pius IX decreed in Ineffabilis Deus the dogma of the Immaculate Conception: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."
St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the fullness of grace which Mary received implied confirmation in grace and therefore sinlessness (S. th. III 27, 5 ad 2). Pius XII decreed in Mystici Corporis that Mary "was immune from all sin, personal or inherited."  The Virgin Mary remained free from every personal sin her whole life, and is a model of supreme purity. Through her unique relationship of union and love with her Son as his Mother, the Virgin Mary shines with a light of purity of far greater brilliance than the stars in the heavens. We truly have a Mother whose love is unwaveringly pure, and who unceasingly cares for her children in their every time of need.
"Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love" (CCC No. 501).

The Pure In Heart

The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (see Mt 5:8). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that "'Pure in heart' refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith" (No. 2518).
The baptized must "struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires" (CCC No. 2520), yet with God's grace we will prevail. When we meditate upon the meaning of "pure in heart," we can find no better example of these Christian virtues than our Virgin Mother who was assumed body and soul into heaven.
The Mother of God lived charity in its fullness, from her nourishing care of the Christ child in Bethlehem, to the wound of love she experienced deep within her heart which, pierced by that terrible sword of sorrow as she stood at the base of the cross, held firm in trust. As for love of truth and orthodoxy of faith, the Virgin Mary, as the Mother of God, is a most perfect example of these virtues, for her Son is Truth, and she loves him and all that he is with maternal devotion.
During St. Bonaventure's Fourth sermon on Annunciation, he described Mary as a "tabernacle" in which the Lord rested. He encourages the faithful to turn toward the Blessed Mother for help: "Let us go to the Virgin with great confidence, and we will tranquilly find her in our necessities. Therefore this tabernacle is rightly to be honored, and to this tabernacle flight should be made, in which the Lord rested so familiarly, so that the Blessed Virgin herself could say truly and literally, "Who made me rested in my tabernacle" (IX, 673).

--Reflection by F. K. Bartels

Holiness...

A reflection on everyday holiness from a sermon by Blessed John Henry Newman

     And if you are conscious that your hearts are hard, and are desirous that they should be softened, do not despair. All things are possible to you, through God's grace. Come to Him for the will and the power to do that to which He calls you. He never forsakes anyone who calls upon Him. He never puts any trial on a man but He gives him grace to overcome it. Do not despair the; nay not despond, even though you come to Him, yet are not at once exalted to overcome yourselves.
     
     He gives grace by little and little. It is by coming daily to His presence, that by degrees we find ourselves awed by that presence and able to believe and obey Him. Therefore if any one desires illumination to know God's will as well as strength to do it, let him come to Mass daily, if he possibly can. At least let him present himself daily before the Blessed Sacrament,  and, as it were, offer his heart to His Incarnate Saviour, presenting it as a reasonable offering to be influenced, changed and sanctified under the eye and by the grace of the Eternal Son.


     And let him every now and then through the day make some short prayer or ejaculation, to the Lord and Saviour, and again to His Blessed Mother, the immaculate most Blessed Virgin Mary, or again to his guardian Angel, or to his Patron Saint.


     Let him now and then collect his mind and place himself, as if in heaven, in the presence of God;  as if before God's throne;  let him fancy he sees the All-Holy Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.  These are the means by which, with God's grace, he will be able in course of time to soften his heart--not all at once, but by degrees; not by his own power or wisdom, but by the grace of God blessing his endeavour.


     Thus it is that Saints have begun. They have begun by these little things, and so become at length Saints.  They were not saints all at once, but by little and little. And so we, who are not saints, must still proceed by the same road;  by lowliness, patience, trust in God, recollection that we are in His presence, and thankfulness for His mercies.





     
     

Prayer is the answer..

It is Jesus who stirs in you a desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal. -- Blessed John Paul II

So I was thinking recently about what motivates me to be more then I could ever imagine for myself.
I was thinking why do I all of a sudden desire to serve in a bold and dynamic way? Honestly, where did this boldness come from? The answer: Prayer!  Prayer is my way of connecting with God.  It is my way of staying connected with Him. It's interesting because I hear a lot about how do we do that? How do we connect with God? I always say, just do it. Maybe I make it seem too simple, but it is just that simple.  I do not believe that God makes getting in touch with him difficult, but we as humans do.  "I am too busy, to pray." "I can't get to mass on Sunday, that is the day I rest, God will understand if I don't show up." St Padre Pio once said, "If you eat everyday, then receive our Lord everyday." Now i know he is speaking of the Eucharist, but in another way we can take this phrase as speaking to the heart of each one of us and saying, make time for our Lord everyday.


I see, day in and day out people who long to make a difference in the lives of others. Why? Well the altruistic answer is, because I have been blessed and so I will go out and do the same.  The answer you hear most of the time is, well it makes me feel good and well that is what you are suppose to do..give back. Now weirdly enough both of the above answers are correct.  It is good to give when you have been blessed because you can only keep what you give out to others, and also that giving does feel good and there is nothing wrong with feeling good about having given of yourself to others.  The problem is though a lot of the times we end up doing more for the way it makes us feel then anything else. We wonder after a while, am I doing this because I am being called to serve God's people or am I doing this because people tell me I'm a great person when I do. I think service is a key to healing and having an encounter with Christ, but if we have no Christ to give to someone that we serve, what source are giving from?


I was talking to someone a couple of days ago.  We were discussing community at a meeting and I said to him: you know where community starts? Its starts on that altar at mass--when I receive Christ, I can then give him to you, and when you receive him at mass you can then give him to me and to others. Community is not about a fundraiser or clothing drive or who you sit by at mass...or even if you know every single person's name in the parish. Community is our encounter with Christ being put to action in His very body and world. Community is our participation in a relationship or life of prayer that calls us to be Him to others. Community is drawn out from a relationship we nurture with Christ, prayer!!! 


Community can start from jumping right into ministry; truly God can use any means to bring us to himself.  I am a firm believer of getting involved--I am also an even firmer believer of relationship with Christ. A daily prayer life will change everything from the inside out.  I believe that people fear the change. They fear what might come out.  They fear that all the stuff that caused them so much pain will finally come out and free them from the chains that they have grown accustomed to.  They fear that they will be asked to do more--they minister from a place of woundedness and not a place of relationship or encounter with Christ. When I say a place of woundedness I mean do we serve others to satiate a wound, but not necessarily heal it? Do we serve kids in youth ministry so that they may look up to us because no one ever did?  Do we serve to gain, or do we serve to give?


If we take the Annunciation for example, Mary encounters the angel. The angel explains to Her that she would be the bearer of Christ. After getting over a couple humps and asking some important questions, she says yes!!! At that moment Christ is conceived in her virginal womb. She not only encounters Christ, she now bears him within her very being.  What is the next thing she does, she goes out to be with her cousin Elizabeth--She goes to serve and Bring Christ to Her!!! 


Mary is a beautiful example of service to us--she receives Christ and then goes out to be him! Awesome!! The key questions to ask ourselves is this and this is actually something  I heard recently by Mark Hart was one phrase "do we serve because of a promise we made to God, or the promise He made to us." Mary served from a place of promise that God made to Her.  She had no idea of what was to come, but she trusted it would.  She continued to pray, as she held all these things in her heart!! She continued to rely on God and all that God gave her to serve.  She did not serve from a place of woundedness, as if she was receiving any sort of glory.  She gave God all the glory and kept none for herself.  


Let us look to Mary as our example as we learn to encounter God in prayer. Let us make it a priority to cultivate a prayer life. This prayer life will carry you more then you could ever imagine.  May we learn to take time to be quiet in a noisy and self-centered world. Prayer is simple and does not need to long and calculated.  Do you try to always figure out the best ways to talk to your friends, or do you just talk to them? Are you real with the people you love in your life? Do you make time for the people you love?   May we make time for God as he continually makes time for us.  May we make him a priority as he did on the cross for us!!! 

Blessed are they...

The measure of Love is Love without measure. -- St Augustine

For me yesterday was such a beautiful and blessed day. Not only was it Divine Mercy Sunday, but it was the beatification of the late, great John Paul II. To me he was an example of great holiness, and a role model on how to love others. I am in awe of the fact that I lived during the life of a soon to be saint as well as I got to be in so many places to see him and experience him first hand. He  proved that sainthood is what we are all called to--that it is not left to the elite or just to the religious but is offered to all, The harvest is rich, but the laborers few.. (Mt 9:37) 

He proved that sainthood takes a willingness to be open to the call that Christ calls us to. He showed us that sainthood takes a boldness to always stand by truth, no matter the circumstance. And as he repeated on several occasions, he proved that a life lived totally for Christ is one that is lived in love and not in fear, Be not afraid. He would echo so often in many homilies. Knowing that in every moment in our walk with Christ we would stumble or be tempted to give up.  That the cross would get too heavy or that there would be  moments of darkness. He reminded us to stay strong and walk confidently in Christ's Love, You are not the sum of your sins, you are the sum of the Father's love. 
Blessed John Paul II was a man of great faith, courage, boldness and love and truly walked in the light of Christ.  Near the end of his life, he walked his calvary as he was  sick with Parkinson's. You will always see him  in pictures with a crucifix in hand...speaking to us that the cross is where you need to find strength, the cross is your example of love, and the cross is what carries us more then we carry it. 
I am so grateful that despite all that is going on in this crazy world of ours, we are given these people of hope and peace and light.  These people of encouragement, to continue running the race that God has set before each one of us. 
Below, I have an included  an excerpt of the words of  Blessed John Paul II, spoken on World Youth Day 2000. 

Dear young people, faced with these great mysteries, learn to lift  your hearts in an attitude of contemplation. Stop and look with wonder  at the infant Mary brought into the world, wrapped in swaddling clothes  and laid in a manger: the infant is God himself who has come among us.  Look at Jesus of Nazareth, received by some and scorned by others,  despised and rejected: He is the Saviour of all. Adore Christ, our  Redeemer, who ransoms us and frees us from sin and death: He is  the living God, the source of Life. Contemplate and reflect! God created us to share in his very  own life; he calls us to be his children, living members of the mystical  Body of Christ, luminous temple of the Spirit of Love. He calls us to  be his: he wants us all to be saints. Dear young people, may it be your  holy ambition to be holy, as He is holy. You will ask me: but is it possible today to be saints? If we had  to rely only on human strength, the undertaking would be truly impossible.  You are well aware, in fact, of your successes and your failures; you are  aware of the heavy burdens weighing on man, the many dangers which  threaten him and the consequences caused by his sins.  At times we may be gripped by discouragement and even come to  think that it is impossible to change  anything either in the world or in ourselves. Although the journey is difficult, we can do everything in the One  who is our Redeemer. Turn then to no one, except Jesus. Do not look  elsewhere for that which only He can give you, because  "of all the names in the world given to men this is the only  one by which we can be saved” (Acts 4:12).  With Christ, saintliness - the divine plan for every  baptized person - becomes possible.  Rely on Him; believe in the invincible power of the  Gospel and place faith as the  foundation of your hope. Jesus walks with you,  he renews your heart and  strengthens you with the vigour of his Spirit. Young people of every continent, do not be afraid  to be the saints of the new  millennium! Be contemplative, love prayer; be coherent  with your faith and  generous in the service of your brothers and sisters, be  active members of the  Church and builders of peace. To succeed in this demanding  project of life,  continue to listen to His Word, draw strength from the Sacraments,  especially  the Eucharist and Penance. The Lord wants you to be  intrepid apostles of his  Gospel and builders of a new humanity. In fact, how could you  say you believe in God made man without taking a firm position against all that destroys the human  person and the family? If you believe that Christ has revealed the  Father’s love for every person, you cannot fail to strive to contribute  to the building of a new world, founded on the power of love and  forgiveness, on the struggle against injustice and all physical, moral  and spiritual distress, on the orientation of politics, economy,  culture and technology to the service of man and his integral development.

.