Tag Archives: Mary

Evangelical surrender

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December 2
“Evangelical surrender is directed towards receiving God’s word. It is like the ploughing which enables the soil to be ‘good soil’ capable of receiving the divine seed, the seed of life.”
-Father Marie-Dominque Philippe, O.P.
For Reflection
According to Father Philippe, what is the relationship between surrender and reception of the “divine seed, the seed of life?” How does Mary demonstrate evangelical surrender to God after Angel Gabriel’s announcement? On a scale of 1-10, how do I rank my evangelical surrender with 1 being “unyielding” and 10 being “Marian?” How can I work to move myself forward this Advent season? (Tomorrow’s GraceLine may give you “Mary-like” insights).
  

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Fullness of glory and grace

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December 1
“… [Mary] was predestined first of all to be Mother of God. And the precise reason why the fullness of glory and grace was given her was to make her of it to be the mother of Christ, as St. Thomas expresses it.”
-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
For Reflection
When in Sacred Scripture do we first learn of Mary’s predestination to be the Mother of God? (Hint: It is in the Old Testament in the first book.) What does this suggest about God’s own preparation for the coming of Jesus? What aspect of this preparation does the quote detail? Consider this in light of Angel Gabriel’s salutation to Mary, “Hail, full of grace… (Lk. 1:28). What sacrament was both my preparation for Christ as well as my initial reception of Him? As a chosen daughter of the Most High God, I, too, have been called to be a Christ-bearer. How can I cooperate with grace to prepare for Jesus and to receive Him anew this Christmas?
  

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Easter Sunday

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Easter Sunday
Most glorious Lord of life that on this day
Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin,
And having harrowed hell didst bring away
Captivity thence captive us to win;
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin
And grant that we, for whom Thou didst die
Being with Thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity.
And that Thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love Thee for the same again;
And for Thy sake that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.
–“Easter”, Edmund Spenser (1553-1598)
Today’s Reflection
JESUS LIVES! How am I experiencing His life in me on this glorious day?

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Holy Saturday

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Holy Saturday
I am not moved to love Thee, O my Lord,
By any longing for Thy Promised Land;
Nor by the fear of hell am I unmanned
To cease from my transgressing deed or word.
‘Tis Thou Thyself dost move me, — Thy blood poured
Upon the cross from nailed foot and hand;
And all the wounds that did Thy body brand;
And all Thy shame and bitter death’s award.
Yea, to Thy heart am I so deeply stirred
That I would love Thee were no heaven on high,
That I would fear, were hell a tale absurd!
Such my desire, all questioning grows vain;
Though hope deny me hope I still should sigh,
And as my love is now, it should remain.
-To Christ Crucified (16th or 17th C.),
Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Walsh
Today’s Reflection
On this Holy Saturday I enter into the tomb with Jesus. What one area of my life is most in need of resurrection? How is Jesus showing me He wants to bring this part of me “back to life?”

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Good Friday

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Good Friday

Jesus:
O Mother dear, didst thou but hear
My plaint of desolation,
Thy tender heart would burst apart
With grief of separation!

I am not stone, yet all alone
I hush My soul’s outcrying, —
Alone to tread the wine-press red,
To bear the pain of dying.

My lips are dumb, the night has come;
Ah! Solace I might borrow
Had I but thee to bide with Me
In this wild waste of sorrow.

Mary:
“Gentle moon and start of midnight,
Golden apples born of sunshine,
Precious pearls and jewels rare, —
All things glorious, all things shining,”
Thus the sorrowing Mother spake;
“E’en ye bright, transfigured faces,
Mourn with me for Jesus’ sake.

“Sparkle, gleam, and glow no longer:
Only moan and mourn for Him.
Shine not, shine not, weep forever,
Till your thousand eyes are dim;
For the mighty One has fallen,
And my Beautiful is slain;
In the dense wood pierced, my Shepherd, —
Weep ye, weep ye for my pain!
O most oppressed of all oppressed,
Heart of my heart, my all, my Son!
Grief’s keenest sword doth pierce my breast:
I die with Thee, my only one!
Alas! the pain is all too great,
Since, living, still I share Thy fate.

“Yes, mine Thou wert to bear and rear
Through life and light, and pain and loss;
And now, ten thousand times more dear,
I yield Thee to the cruel cross!”

-“Dialogue at the Cross,” Frederick Spee, S. J. (1591-1635)
translated from the German by Mary E. Mannix

 

Today’s Reflection

Today I stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary my mother. What pain, sorrow, suffering, trial, and contradiction do I yield to the “cruel cross”? How does Mary give me guidance in this surrender?

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Holy Thursday

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Holy Thursday

Prone in Gethsemene upon His face,
His eyelids closed, — lay Christ of all our world,
The winds with endless sorrows seemed enswirled;
A little fountain murmured of its pain
Reflecting the pale sickle of the moon;
Then was the hour when the Angel brought
From God’s high throne the Cup of bitter horn,
While on His hands tears trembling fell like rain.

Before the Christ a cross arose on high;
He saw His own young body hanging there
Mangled, distorted; knotted ropes half-tear
The sinews from their sockets; saw He nigh
The jagged nails’ hot rage, the direful Crown
Upon His head, and every dripping thorn
Red-laden, as in fury of its scorn
The thunder battered all kind voices down.
He heard the pattering drops, as from the cross
A piteous sobbing whispered and grew still.
Then Jesus sighed, and every pore did spill
A bloody sweat.

-From Gethsemene
by Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff (1797-1848)

 

Today’s Reflection

Take this poem into your prayer time meditation as you consider the great gift of our redemption. How is Jesus speaking to me in it?

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: April 8

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April 8
“Confess what you have done in word or deed, by night or day. Confess in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation receive the heavenly treasure.”
-St. Cyril of Jerusalem
Today’s Reflection
As we enter into the Holy Triduum, how does this quote speak to me specifically today?

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: April 7

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April 7

“Who can measure the extent of My goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth; for you I allowed Myself to be nailed to the Cross; for you I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain.”

-Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska

 

Today’s Reflection

What is Jesus saying directly to you through these words? What do you say back to Him? As we enter the season of Easter and Divine Mercy, trust that you will draw from the fountain of the Sacred Heart the very grace you most need.

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: April 6

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April 6
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
-Matthew 26:14-25
Today’s Reflection
Meditate on the ways we have been betrayed and the ways
you have betrayed others.
God is ever-loving. We can break our relationship with Him but He never stops loving us. Even if we trade Him in for thirty pieces of silver, He continues to love and extend mercy to us. Mentally submit these betrayals into His unfathomable ocean of divine mercy and receive His peace.

 

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: April 5

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April 5
Palm Sunday

Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”

-John 13:36-38

 

Today’s Reflection

Have you ever been filled with so much zeal for the Lord that you would do anything for Him? Even die for Him? And then, only minutes later, when things got a little inconvenient, you changed your mind, or even betrayed Him?

The passage above shows us that even the apostle, Peter, who spent three years walking side-by-side with Him, turned his back on Jesus when the going got tough. As we come to the close of Lent and anticipate the Triduum and Easter, let us renew our fervor to stand
with the Lord at any cost.

 

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