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"Dear children! Today I am praying here with you that you may gather the strength to open your hearts and thus to become aware of the mighty love of the suffering God. Through this His love, goodness and meekness, I am also with you. I invite you for this special time of preparation to be a time of prayer, penance and conversion. My children, you need God. You cannot go forward without my Son. When you comprehend and accept this, what was promised to you will be realized. Through the Holy Spirit the Kingdom of Heaven will be born in your hearts. I am leading you to this. Thank you." (December 2, 2010) Our Lady wants us to be "aware of the mighty love of the suffering God." She, of all people, understands the might of God's love, for she was the recipient of its full force. The feast we celebrate tomorrow recalls that great love poured out upon Mary. The Immaculate Conception was the first fruit of Jesus' great act of redemption. He provided for His Mother's freedom from original sin, in advance, through His death and resurrection. "Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, 'full of grace' through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: 'The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church. n. 491) Mother Mary was so inundated with the love of God that she was preserved from original sin, made pure and perfect in order to be the fit mother of Jesus. And this great privilege was actually an act of love for all of us, because it was through Mary that Jesus would come to save all of us! And so Our Lady tells us, "Through this His love, goodness and meekness, I am also with you." Of course we understand this to mean that Our Lady's presence in Medjugorje is given to us through the love, goodness and meekness of Jesus. Yes, yes, yes!! But it is even more astoundingly true that it is through the gift of Jesus' love that Our Lady is the Immaculate Conception, that she was given to us in her purity at her conception in order to become the Mother of Christ! Mary is the great gift to us all, the portal through which God could become Man. What a gift of love she is!! And so, tonight and tomorrow, let us contemplate this perfect gift of love that we have been given. Let us gaze upon our Mother, our Queen, and our Hope, with eyes of love and hearts of gratitude to God! Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocate nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos
ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. Amen
In Jesus and Mary,
|
 (thanks to Bernard Gallagher) |
December 7, 2010 |
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocate nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos
ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. Amen
In Jesus and Mary,
Cathy Nolan
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