THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for June 23rd – June 28th, 2014
Ordinary Time
for June 23rd – June 28th, 2014
Ordinary Time
Liturgical texts here
IN my recent meditation, The Rising Morning Star, we see through Scripture and Tradition how the Blessed Mother has a significant role in not only the first, but second coming of Jesus. So intermingled are Christ and His mother that we often refer to their mystical union as the “Two Hearts” (whose feasts we celebrated this past Friday and Saturday). As a symbol and type of the Church, her role in these “end times” is likewise a type and sign of the Church’s role in bringing about the triumph of Christ over the satanic kingdom spreading over the world.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side. —Sr. Lucia, seer of Fatima; Lucia Speaks, III Memoir, World Apostolate of Fatima, Washington, NJ: 1976; p.137
Certainly, what I have written up till now will be rejected by many. They simply cannot accept the fact that the Virgin Mary continues to play such a significant role in salvation history. Neither can Satan. As St. Louis de Montfort asserted:
Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power. —St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, Tan Books, n. 52
In this past Friday’s Gospel on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lord says:
I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.
Jesus’ Heart reveals the kind of heart we are to have: a childlike and obedient heart. Even though He was God, Jesus continually lived in docility to His Father’s will. In fact, He lived in complete docility to even His mother’s will.
He went down with [Joseph and Mary] and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
If God himself entrusted His life to Mary—His life in her womb, His life in her home, His life in her parenting, care, nurturing, and provision… then is it okay for us to entrust ourselves entirely to her? This is what “consecration” to Our Lady means: to entrust one’s life, actions, merits, past and present, into her Immaculate hands and heart. Good enough for Jesus? Then good enough for me. And we know that He wanted us to entrust ourselves to her when He gave her to us beneath the Cross, telling John to take her as His mother.
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. (Thursday’s Gospel)
We too then should listen to Jesus’ words in this regard and take Mary into our homes and hearts. The one who does so will find himself building on rock. Why? Who was more united to Christ than Mary, from whom Jesus took His very flesh? This is why we speak of the “triumph of the Two Hearts.” For Mary, who is “full of grace,” shares in the triumph of Jesus’ Heart by distributing those very graces to us in spiritual motherhood. This is captured beautifully in a vision of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich:
When the angel had descended I beheld above him a great shining cross in the heavens. On it hung the Savior from whose Wounds shot brilliant rays over the whole earth. Those glorious wounds were red… their center gold-yellow… He wore no crown of thorns, but from all the Wounds of His Head streamed rays. Those from His Hands, Feet, and Side were fine as hair and shone with rainbow colors; sometimes they were all united and fell upon villages, cities, and houses throughout the world… I also saw a shining red heart floating in the air. From one side flowed a current of white light to the Wound of the Sacred Side, and from the other a second current fell upon the Church in many regions; its rays attracted numerous souls who, by the Heart and the current of light, entered into the Side of Jesus. I was told that this was the Heart of Mary. Beside these rays, I saw from all the Wounds about thirty ladders let down to earth. —Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, Emmerich, Vol. I, p. 569
Her heart is deeply “connected” to Christ’s as no others’ so she in turn can be a vessel and true spiritual mother, bringing the light of grace upon the Church and her members.
Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 with jeweled rings on her fingers from which brilliant light shone. St. Catherine heard interiorly:
These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems from which rays do not fall are the graces for which souls forget to ask.
Opening her arms wide, Our Lady’s palms facing forward and light streaming from the rings, St. Catherine saw the words:
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. —St. Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal, Joseph Dirvin, p.93-94
Jesus warned in Wednesday’s Gospel: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.” Never has there been a time in the history of the Church where we have needed more the consolation, words, protection, guidance and grace of this mother—in a word, recourse to the refuge of her heart. Indeed, at Fatima Our Lady said:
My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. —Second apparition, June 13, 1917, The Revelation of the Two Hearts in Modern Times, www.ewtn.com
When we are safely in her heart we will surely be safe in Christ’s Heart. We too will share in Christ’s triumph of good over evil since she is also the woman who crushes the serpent’s head with and through Christ.1
It is with joy, then, on this feast of the Immaculate Heart, that I recommend the tremendous free booklet on consecration to Mary by Fr. Michael Gaitley. For how could one fear the heart from which Jesus’ own Heart took its flesh?
I strongly recommend getting a free copy of 33 Days to Morning Glory, which will give you a simple yet profound guide to entrusting yourself to Mary. Just click on the image below:
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Taken from: http://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-two-hearts/
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