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“Oh, how precious are our souls to Jesus and Mary, our blood Brother and our mother. The best expression of our gratitude for such love is the irrevocable consecration of ourselves to them – in the gloom of uncertainty, in the anguish of doubt, in the heart-riving loneliness of interior desolation, when God seems to desert us, by complete abandonment to the divine will.”

For Reflection:             

Do I have difficulty seeing myself as “precious?” Ask the Holy Spirit to heal the area of your heart where this wound is lodged. Turn your eyes to the hearts of Jesus and Mary and picture them brimming with love for you. Return to this image every time the evil one seeks to sow uncertainty, anguish, doubt, and desolation into your soul. Journal your insights and reflections.

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“Mary cannot forsake us, because she is our Mother. If we confide our salvation to her loving care and faithfully imitate her virtues, she will fold us to her Immaculate Heart both now and at the hour of our death.”           

For Reflection:             

Mystically ask Mary to take you to her Immaculate Heart. Rest there with her. Journal your impressions, insights, reflections on her maternal love for you.

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“What a truly marvelous privilege is ours! Mary being our mother, we share in her love of her divine Son. Let us stand in the spirit on the mount of crucifixion and listen to the dying Christ saying to each of us, ‘Behold thy mother.’”

For Reflection:             

What joy it brings to know that Mary shares with us her own love of her divine Son! In those moments when my own heart is bereft of sensate love for God, I will rely on my Mother’s perfect love to express my emotion. In what other ways can I open myself more and more to the operations of my spiritual Mother’s soul?

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“Mary’s holiness kept pace with her labor. Through her faithful performance of her ordinary duties, she may be said to have attained, in the solitude of Nazareth, her greatest sanctity.”

For Reflection:             

Do I view my daily duties as stepping stones to union with God? What strategies can I employ to do so with greater consistency and hope?

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“Once we surrender ourselves to the divine will, obedience must be our solace and support. We must disregard the doubts with which Satan inspires us, by acting against them in confidence that God will provide for us even though to do so might cost Him a miracle.”

For Reflection:             

Have I experienced the solace and support that comes from obedience? How and when? Have I experienced God’s miraculous intervention in my life? How and when? What virtue does the quote call us to use to counter Satan’s temptations to doubt?

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“The way of the Cross is the only pathway to peace of mind here and to eternal peace hereafter…Only in the school of the cross can we learn the truest wisdom, the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified…”

For Reflection:             

Reflect on the lessons you have learned in the school of the cross. What are they? How has the wisdom you have gleaned encouraged you when you have experienced other crosses?

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“In the trials most repugnant to our natural selves, when we are misunderstood, misrepresented, or calumniated, let us be silent and, like Jesus and Mary, make no attempt at justification… The soul that is dead to itself has mastered the fine art of living.”

For Reflection:

How hard is this virtue to practice! And how imperfectly I live it. Perhaps the key is to die to self in the small affronts I experience each day so that when greater persecutions come I will be spiritually prepared. What are my thoughts about this?

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“When, through the reception of God’s favors, we are placed in a false light, we should rejoice that God has enabled us to overturn the idol of our self-love and thus to love Him above all things for His own love-worthy sake.”

For Reflection:             

Read John 15: 18-21. What parallels do you see between this quote and the scripture passage? Think of a time when you have been misunderstood. How did you respond? In light of these quotes and in light of your increase of wisdom, what would be your response now? Make a promise to try to remember this lesson of Our Lady the next time you are misunderstood.

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“The house of Elizabeth, under the blessed influence of Mary, became a school of perfect sanctity in which everything was said and done from religious principle, thus enabling the mother of the Baptist to progress in holiness and allowing the virtues of Christ’s precursor to develop…”

For Reflection:             

Holy Mother Church tells us our homes are to be domestic churches. Am I a blessed influence in my home? To what extent could my home be called a school of perfect sanctity? In what ways am I succeeding in this regard? In what ways can I improve?

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“Who can estimate the degree of grace conferred on Elizabeth through daily contact with the Mother of God? Bearing in her chaste womb the Creator of men and the lord of angels, she infused blessings of the highest spiritual order into the soul of her virtuous relative, not only by her words and actions, but, by her mere presence.”

For Reflection:             

In what situations have I imitated Our Blessed Mother by blessing others by my presence. Is there a situation where I can do so today? Am I willing – why or why not?

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