Meditation for Holy Week on Christ crowned in thorns

Was the horrible sight of the crowning of thorns the first and only time Our Lady saw Jesus crowned in humility? The Lord's whole earthly life, taking on the nature of a human being was a humiliation. Since no man before Christ was born perfect and sinless and the teaching of the Trinity cannot be known through human reason alone, who on earth is able to distinguish the God-Man from sinful humanity? How humble is the Lord! It is similar to entering a penitentiary, wearing prison garb, yet never having committed a crime and being willing to be seen first as a criminal. How many examples must Our Lady have witnessed of this unending display of humility which culminates in the Lord's Crowning with thorns and cruel mockery by the soldiers.

Our Blessed Lady herself said to St. Bridget, "I heard some say that my Son was a thief; others, that He was an impostor; others, that no one deserved death more than He did; and every word was a new sword of grief to my heart."
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary, 446-7.

St. Augustine says: Man sinned and became guilty; God is born a man to free man from his guilt. Man fell, but God descended; man fell miserably, but God descended mercifully; man fell through pride, God descended with his grace.
St. Augustine
Office of Readings , Saturday from January 2nd to Epiphany
from the daily email of Mary Vitamin. 

(Helen, known as "Mary Vitamin" has just lost her mother, please remember her in your prayers)

Mother of the Redeemer is our mother in our sufferings

Loved this meditation today from my daily spiritual meditations provided free in my inbox via Mary Vitamin.

[T]he Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of all the redeemed. As though by a continuation of that motherhood which by the power of the Holy Spirit had given him life, the dying Christ conferred upon the ever Virgin Mary a new kind of motherhood ”spiritual and universal”towards all human beings, so that every individual, during the pilgrimage of faith, might remain, together with her, closely united to him unto the Cross, and so that every form of suffering, given fresh life by the power of this Cross, should become no longer the weakness of man but the power of God.
Salvifici Doloris, #26
Blessed PopeJohn Paul II
Aren't we blessed to know that Our Lady understands our sufferings as a parent? That Jesus, in the middle of His passion, gave her to us so that we didn't have to suffer alone? Lent is such a blessed time!

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

On March 25^th, when St. Bernadette asked the name of the beautiful Lady in the Grotto, She replied "I am the Immaculate Conception." Our Lady did not say: My name is the Immaculate Conception or  I am she who is immaculately conceived. She simply said: I am the Immaculate Conception. The manner of prayer shown by Our Lady at  Lourdes  confirms Her statement. Because Mary is the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady's entire being gives glory to God. She is unable to do anything but give glory to God. At  Lourdes , Our Lady prayed the Rosary with St. Bernadette, She did not pray the Our Father; She doesn't need daily bread or forgiveness. She did not pray the Hail Mary; She is the one being addressed in the Hail Mary. But She did pray the Glory be to the Father, because She will never miss an opportunity to give glory to God.

 from Mary Vitamin

January is devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus

The month of January is devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus,

here is a meditation from Mary Vitamin about Our Lady, the first human to revere the Holy Name of Jesus. She revered Him from the moment of the incarnation in her womb when He was hidden to all.

Quote:

"Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High..."

Luke 1:30-32

 

Meditation:

Our Lady was the first to revere the Holy Name of Jesus. She began to do this as soon as the angel revealed the Sacred Name. All during the arduous journey into the hill country of Judah , on her errand of charity, She kept the Sacred Name within Her heart. When Our Lady arrived at the house of Zecharias and greeted  Elizabeth , Our Lady,  revealed the secret Her Immaculate heart pondered during the journey:

 

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour

Holy is His name.

Magnificat Luke 1:46-55

Jackie Evancho sings Ave Maria

Pure perfection and angelic innocence. May you always use your talent for God's glory, young lady!

Welcome Drew Mariani listeners!

It was my great pleasure to share with you my story of Christina's prayer to Our Lady in my time of need today as part of the Marian Retreat on the Drew Mariani Show.

Its a beautiful and humbling experience when our children's relationship with God takes wings. It was Christina and the Blessed Mother who spiritually carried me through the ordeal of my mother's suffering and death.
Remembering that Our Lady was calling Mom home helped me to see her hand in Mom's life and death. She suffered with Mom and taught Mom to offer up her sufferings for her nurses, her family and anyone she met. Priests left her room saying that she inspired them, and Mom was anointed many times before she died a happy death, after receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion, surrounded by her family just before the Hour of Mercy on a Friday. We prayed her on her way to God with the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

I told Christina that Grandma went to live with Jesus and she seemed to understand, nodding her head. I am so grateful that Our Lady sent me a little angel whom the world often rejects to lead me through the valley of death into the light of faith.

I'll be on the Drew Mariani Show today

At 6PM EST, the Drew Mariani Show, as part of their Marian Retreat In Mary's Hands, will be playing my story of  "The Prayers of  a Little Saint" from Mary's Touch Program on Catholic Radio International. Afterwards, Drew and I will discuss the story, and may even take calls. I look forward to telling you how much  my daughter Christina with Down syndrome has taught me though her simple trust in Our Lady.

You can listen to the show live by clicking on this link.

The Nativity of Our Lady

Meditation:


St. Peter Julian Eymard

Even in her cradle, Mary was the delight of the most Holy Trinity, the admiration of the Angels. 'Who is this privileged one,' they ask, 'who at the first dawn of life, is so rich in virtue and adorned with such glory?'

In like manner should we rejoice, since Mary brings us the Bread of Life. From the day of her birth, we salute her as the aurora of the Eucharist, for we know that the Savior of mankind will take from her the substance of that Body and Blood which He will give us in the Adorable Sacrament of His love.

St. Peter Julian Eymard, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, (Eymard Library), 31.
 

Meditation from Mary Vitamin
 
Here is a meditation on the meaning of the word latria, or the devotion we owe Our Lady as opposed to worship, which is reserved for the Most Holy Trinity. Latria was the
virtue I was given to cultivate this year when I was given a holy card at the Friary at Epiphany.
 

Queenshhip of Mary and a hidden life

The Friars of the Immaculate celebrate the Queenship of Mary with a beautiful outdoor Mass and potluck lunch. Christina sat during the Mass, holding a bouquet of flowers from our new garden, smelling the fragrant red roses. She knelt in the grass at my side and received her second Holy Communion.
Then we shared a quiche made from our garden's fresh zucchini with the community of 200. We sat with our friends the Bothurs as they planned their house blessing tomorrow. Christina played on the swingset with her friends while I met Patty, a 52 year old woman with Down syndrome and her mother. They seem to have such a close friendship, I could see Christina's and my future relationship in them.
Mary, lived with Our Savior for 30 years in relative obscurity, and, while we prayed the rosary after Mass,  I wondered what He had gained from so many quiet years with only his Mother for company, to prepare Him for three years in the public eye, and for His sacrificial death on the Cross. Looking at that quietly happy pair, mother and adult daughter with Down syndrome, I could see some of the peace and joy which must have filled those 30 quiet years which Our Lady shared with Jesus. What a blessing for both of them it was!

Thank you Mary for this meditation, for your example of the hidden life in Nazareth with Jesus, and for the special relatiionship Christina and I will share when her sisters have grown up and left home, just as she was my only companion at Mass today, patiently holding flowers for you, and resting in my arms.

 It was a blessing to help  her receive Our Lord again on your feast day.

She is truly a gift from God's Hand.

Worldwide Consecration to Mary on August 15

This is from a Facebook friend. If you haven't tried Facebook, you should, there are so many wonderful Catholics events and groups,  that it is difficult to keep up with them all. I just completed my Marian Consecration as part of my first year of formation in the MIM Militiae Immaculata Mediartrix, the third order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. I completed my consecration the day before my birthday. It was a life changing experience, I feel closer to Our Lady than ever before in my life. Imagine if there were a mass consecration of souls to her Immaculate Heart? Could we help bring about a mass conversion, bringing the world a step closer to the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart?
See how this might be happening.

As we get closer to August 15th, The Feast day of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, our thoughts turn to the Consecration to Jesus through Mary as a way of preparing to celebrate well that wonderful feast day of our mother Mary’s assumption. Because Mary’s assumption is always a blessed day here on Earth and in heaven we need to prepare to celebrate it well. So today, I would like to let you know of the Worldwide Consecration to Jesus through Mary, where by you can consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary. I would really encourage you to join in the consecration if you can, it’s really wonderful and can take your spiritual life to a higher level. It’s the method of John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Fr. Corapi.


I recommend you pick up a copy of St. Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary, I am sure you can find a copy at your Parish / Church Book store or any Catholic Book shop in your town.

You can also check out the website:

http://www.icatholicradio.com/station-events/consecrate-yourself/

Also, here is the link to the facebook group, you can join

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108292985916&ref=ts

just a few words, the Worldwide Consecration to Jesus through Mary was started last year by one of my friends Steven (an employee at the Station of the Cross Catholic Radio) together with Fr Corapi. Where by Catholics Consecrate themselves to Jesus through Mary according to the method of St. Louis De Montfort and its been tried and proven by John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Fr. Corapi that is I recommend you to join as well and be blessed as join.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta :

The feast of the Immaculate heart of Mary, cause of our joy, is drawing near. Our preparation for the great day should be that of deep, humble gratitude to God. Let us ask two special graces from Our Lady:

The grace of perseverance in our beautiful vocation, and delicate love for God’s poor. The greatness of Our Lady was in her humility. No wonder Jesus wanted to live so close to her. We learn from him and from her one lesson: To be meek and humble of heart.

Thirsting For God, 120.
Source: Mary Vitamin

Happy Mother's Day, special moms!

After a long time gathering stories of Catholic moms of special needs children, I will finally publish my book "A Special Mother is Born" this summer with WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

I dedicate it the book to the Mother of Mothers, Our Lady, and to all you mothers out there who are unsung saints, caring for ill and disabled children with love and patience which far surpass my own.

Happy Mother's Day.

May is the month of Mary

This is the month of Mary and we are celebrating the Blessed Mother by; saying a daily rosary (trying to make it a habit that sticks), building a Mary garden here at our new home, and attending a delightful concert of Marian hymns called "Songs of Mary" at the Cathedral of St Patrick in Norwich.

It was performed cooperatively with the cathedral choir and the Schola of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church. Latin motets by de Victoria, ancient chant, favorites from "The Sound of Music"(the beautiful Latin hymns Preludium and Alleluia which  the nuns sing in the beginning of the film).

It was sublime, Christina slept soundly on my lap, and I enjoyed the music while contemplating the magnificent gothic cathedral, and meditating on Our Lady and special needs children.

I will be reviewing their upcoming CD, Heart of God, to be released May 20.

New Years Resoutions you may actually keep

American Needs Fatima has a list of suggestions for making a New Year's Resolution that you will actually keep.
They are both spiritual and practical, and of course, include sharing your faith in Our Lady.

Lovely Lady dressed in blue, teach us how to pray

In honor of the30th anniversary of Archbishop Fulton Sheen's entering eternity, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception, here is a poem he helped make famous.

Lovely Lady dressed in blue -------

Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,


Tell me what to say!






Did you lift Him up, sometimes,


Gently on your knee?


Did you sing to Him the way


Mother does to me?






Did you hold His hand at night?


Did you ever try


Telling stories of the world?


O! And did He cry?






Do you really think He cares


If I tell Him things -------


Little things that happen? And


Do the Angels' wings






Make a noise? And can He hear


Me if I speak low?


Does He understand me now?


Tell me -------for you know.






Lovely Lady dressed in blue -------


Teach me how to pray!


God was just your little boy,


And you know the way.


Mary Dixon Thayer who wrote more than one poem for Our Lady, is the author.
This prayer-poem was popularized in the 1950s by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Christina's story is on "Mary's Healing Touch" on Catholic Radio International

In this broadcast, you can listen to me tell the story of how, after receiving the news of my mother's terminal cancer diagnosis last spring, Mary heard the prayers of my little saint with Down syndrome.
 For the next four months she helped us, with her healing touch, to usher Mom into her waiting arms.
Listen here.

Catholic evangelist Immaculee Iligagiza starts a blog

One of my favorite Catholic writers Immaculee Ilibagiza has just started a blog, called Immaculee. She invites us to join her in celebration of the feast day of Our Lady of Kiebeho, November 28.
In the months she was dying from cancer, my mother found great comfort in Immaculee's testimony, and sent for the rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady.
My review of her latest book, Our Lady of Kiebeho is at Catholic Media Review.

My review of The 13th Day

Is up at Catholic Media Review.

It comes out on DVD on December 1st from Ignatius Press.

 Don't miss a great Christmas gift opportunity for your family.

Our Lady calls a Hindu couple to become Catholics

Read this amazing story about how a Hindu woman's recurring dreams of the Blessed Mother calling her caused her conversion to Catholicism.
Does anyone doubt that Blessed Mother Teresa was interceding here?
Read the complete story in the Arlington Catholic Herald.

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

15 Promises for those who say the Rosary

These promises were given by our Blessed Mother to St. Dominic.

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary will be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. Those who recommend themselves to me by the recitation of the Rosary shallnot perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
HT Spiritual Woman