Photo: Creative Commons License
Songs: "Hail Mary" and
"His Light Upon My Rosary"
Copyright: David Burke
– Used With Permission –
by: Saint Maximillian Kolbe
O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.
If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world." Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin. Give me strength against your enemies.
Lord Jesus, You who faithfully visit and fulfill with your Presence the Church and the history of men; You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood render us participants in divine Life and allow \us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life; We adore and bless you.
Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life, truly present and alive among us, we beg you.
Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life, make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb the miraculous work of the Creator, open our hearts to generously welcoming every child that comes into life.
Bless all families, sanctify the union of spouses, render fruitful their love.
Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies with the light of your Spirit, so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect the sacred nature of life, of every human life.
Guide the work of scientists and doctors, so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person, and no one endures suppression or injustice.
Give creative charity to administrators and economists, so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions so that young families can serenely embrace the birth of new children.
Console the married couples who suffer because they are unable to have children and in Your goodness provide for them.
Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children, so they may experience the warmth of your Charity, the consolation of your divine Heart.
Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer, in whose womb you took on our human nature, we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior, the strength to love and serve life, in anticipation of living forever in You, in communion with the Blessed Trinity. Amen
by: Catherine Doherty
Desperately men seek happiness. The majority understand that happiness is found in love. But today the word "love" is losing its very essence. Along with man himself, love is losing its identity and doesn't bring the fulfillment that is expected of it. Perhaps because love has been equated with lust, with encounters that barely touch the hearts of those who casually have met and as casually have parted.
Yes, men seek for happiness and dimly know that love is happiness, but somehow or other have lost the true meaning of love and they are going around and about seeking it or seeking someone who can tell them where it is to be found.
One person who can direct mankind to love is Mary, the Mother of God. Because she became pregnant with Love and she brought forth the Christ; the Tremendous Lover of man! To bear Love. To bring Love up, when Love takes the shape of a Child. To watch Love grow to manhood. To follow Love at a distance, yet being always bound to it, and finally to stand under Love's supreme sacrifice, the death of Love, (it was her Son), is to know the way of Love!
Not only to know it intimately, deeply, and profoundly, but such knowledge becomes like a fire in one's soul. It cant be kept within one's heart for oneself alone. It must be given to others. Of all the people on this earth, of all the creatures that really wanted to give humanity the way to this Love, Mary is the door through which Love passed and became a Child.
To go to Mary, as you and I would go to a beloved neighbour's house, to sit down in her kitchen, and to ask her to tell us about Love and the way to it, is the simplest thing in the world! For faith spans time and enters into eternity, and to a Christian the Communion of Saints is a reality, for those who have died are with us, and we are with them, united in the immense bond of Love that is the Lord. And so talking to Mary should be very simple. Many have found the way easily. More should try it.
She will tell you about her Son who took upon himself your pain and my pain – your sin and my sin. She will tell you about the deep, strange, fantastic obedience he had to his Father, and we will know what obedience truly is, and how to pave the way to Love. She will explain that in order to be fulfilled and find one's identity, one has to drop the pronoun "I" and live by a total attention, by constant listening to the other – to him, to her – the other.
She will explain that no one should really do "their thing" selfishly, but should open one's heart and embrace "all things" that the other does that are good and helpful to everyone.
Lastly, she will speak in a low voice about her own fiat which simply means "yes" to God. And if Christians listen carefully to the gentle voice of the mother of Jesus, they will know what that "yes" means to their life. They will know what Love is and having found it they will never let it go. So let us turn to a woman who truly can liberate us. Let's do it now!
Catherine Doherty (August 15, 1896 – December 14, 1985), born in Russia, was foundress of Madonna House and a prolific writer and teacher. Her passionate zeal impelled her to pass on her faith in God, and she is now being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church.
Visit www.CatherineDoherty.org for more information.
Copyright: Madonna House Publications – With Permission under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2009 by St. Denis Parish
