March 27
Virgin of all virgins blest!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine.
For Reflection:
To enter more deeply into the hearts of Jesus and Mary and to experience the treasury of grace that is found there we must stay united to Christ. Father Faber outlines three ways we can fall away from Jesus and put ourselves in spiritual peril: 1) by breaking away from Him through sin; 2) by letting the attractions of the world become greater than attraction to Him; 3) by slowly distancing ourselves from Him by imperceptible degrees.
Make a serious examination of conscience according to these three perils. Make a good Act of Contrition and then avail yourself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as soon as you can.
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March 26
Savior, when my life shall leave me,
Through your mother's prayers receive me
With the fruits of victory.
For Reflection:
Consider the above stanza in light of these words written by Reverend Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange: … At the hour of death, that supreme moment when the soul’s destiny is decided, the Blessed Virgin Mary bears in mind the love that has been shown to her, recalling how her servants have said to her time and time again: ‘Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death’. She holds them up in the struggle of their last agony and defends them against the devil… inspires them with true contrition … and when they have died she watches over them in purgatory that she may lead them at last into heaven.”
To what extent do I offer no resistance to Mary’s good inspirations? To what extent have I recommended myself to her? What hope does this give me?
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March 25
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Virgin, in your love befriend me,
At the Judgment Day defend me.
Help me by your constant prayer.
For Reflection:
It is Mary’s desire as Spiritual Mother that all of her children attain eternal salvation. She never ceases praying for us. As the eminent theologian, Reverend Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. tells us, “…[Mary] knows all the graces that we need because she is our Mother and has received from God a universal mission to help us all on the way of salvation. Her prayer is fervent and extends to the last sinner without losing any of its intensity. “[Mary] is sovereignly good and prays for all men, yet she prays especially for those who offer no resistance to her good inspirations and faithfully recommend themselves to her, looking upon them with particular tenderness, interceding for them more pressingly, more absolutely, until she finally obtains what she asks and bring them safe home to the harbor of salvation.”
According to this quote, how then do we reap the full benefit of Mary’s intercession? What is your interior response?
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March 24
Fairest maid of all creation,
Queen of hope and consolation,
Let me feel your grief sublime.
For Reflection:
Though we pray these words with faith and love, it is not possible for us to feel the full measure of Mary’s grief simply because she is the “fairest maid of all creation.” Conceived without sin and never having sinned, she experienced the agony of Christ as deeply as He – especially His love for the souls for whom He was dying. Reverend Garrigou- Lagrange says, “Mary’s heart, like Christ’s whole bruised and crushed being, was transformed with anguish by the sins of mankind, being altered more than the bodies and hearts of the sick, the dying, the martyred.”
You are one of those souls for Whom Jesus and Mary suffered a grief sublime. In light of this, pray again the last line above. May our grief be the grief of true repentance. Journal your thoughts.
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March 23
At the cross, your sorrow sharing,
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.
For Reflection:
This stanza from Stabat Mater draws our attention to the fact that Mary stood under the Cross. What does it mean to stand? Reverend Weaver offers one characteristic of Mary’s stance: bravery. He says, “United with her heroic Son, Mary gives a shining example of the fortitude which must be practiced in the battle of life.” And of what is this fortitude the fruit? Prayer, says Father Weaver: “…prayer which comes from a heart that is in harmony with the Heart of God has tremendous power.” To what extent is your prayer life yielding the fortitude you need to stand with Mary? In what one way can you improve it today?
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March 22
Mother, may this prayer be granted:
That Christ's love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.
For Reflection:
To love as Jesus loves. Mary lived this level of spiritual perfection. Dare we hope for it? Dare we wait for it? Henri Nouwen says that waiting is hope and tells us that “Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just according to our wishes.”
In the Novena to Our Lady of Hope, we read these verses from Sirach. Church fathers tell us they refer to Mary: I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come to me all that desire me and be filled with my fruits (Sirach 24:24-26).
Mary makes us a promise. Come to her and she will fill us with her own beatitude. “O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Grace, Hope of the world. Hear us, your children, who cry to you.”
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March 21
Virgin, ever interceding,
Hear me in my fervent pleading:
Fire me with your love of Christ.
For Reflection:
Perhaps that which hinders us most from attaining “open-ended waiting” is our limited capacity to love. Today’s GraceLine contains the solution to this – we need Mary’s love of Christ since our own love is so weakened by concupiscence and sinfulness. St. Louis de Montfort tells us that if we consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary, our Mother gives us the operations of her soul. That means, we can receive her own love of Christ as our own. Is God asking you to make this consecration? Renew it? Live it more fully? How can you begin to do so today?
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March 20
Mary, fount of love's devotion,
Let me share with true emotion
All the sorrow you endured.
For Reflection:
Rev. Bertrand Weaver, C.P. writes in his book, His Cross in Your Life, that God willed to have Mary at Calvary as an “associate teacher of wisdom.” He says that, “By accepting grief ‘great as the sea,’ she united with her Divine Son in giving mankind an example of bowing before the Will of God when it could not have been more difficult.” Nouwen may have put it this way: Mary’s life was a study of open-ended waiting, a characteristic of which is “giving up control over our future and letting God define our life.”
If you truly pray the above stanza of Stabat Mater you are asking for the same grace. You are asking to live open-ended waiting. To what extent are you really willing to pray for this? What would encourage you? What would hinder you? Give all to Mary, Fount of Love’s Devotion.
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March 19
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Christ she saw with life-blood failing,
All her anguish unavailing,
Saw him breathe his very last.
For Reflection:
With Jesus, Mary had sojourned the agonizing road to Calvary. She had watched Him be beaten and tormented, ridiculed and spat upon. She had watched Him fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. Fall. And get up. She had watched nine inch nails pierce His hands and feet. She had seen Him hoisted into the air on a cross. And now she watches Him take His last breath as His life’s blood runs out. The soldier’s lance pierces them both. In light of this verse and meditation, read John 3:16. Substitute your name for “the world.” Sit with this truth and let it take hold of you. Journal your insights and reflections.
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March 18
Christ she saw, for our salvation,
Scourged with cruel acclamation,
Bruised and beaten by the rod.
For Reflection:
Henri Nouwen also tells us that waiting is active, not passive. It requires the gift of receptivity, an openess to that which God is doing in the midst of the waiting.
Meditate on the words “Christ she saw…” As this verse says, Mary’s eyes surely saw her Son’s physical condition while she gazed upon Him. But what else might Mary have been seeing as she held vigil at the foot of the Cross? What might she have seen God doing in the midst of this holocaust? What might He be doing as you “hold vigil” in your current waiting period?
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