5 of 96 Spiritual Gems-Contemplating the Special, Tender Love of our Mother

Contemplating the Special, Tender Love of our Mother

Mary loves you because Jesus loves you to the point of dying just for you,  as if you had been the only human alive.  She loves you because you have cost her indescribable sufferings in her role as an intimate cooperator in your salvation with Jesus.  Mary loves you because, in order to cooperate in bringing you forth to eternal life, she had to give her only Child up to such a humiliating death. She loves you because you are one with her Son, and because in loving you she loves Jesus.  Do we return such love by truly working tirelessly for Mary and her role at this time to help bring all to Jesus?  Do we at least pray the Rosary well each and every day?  Do we make the First Saturdays to console her?  Do we wear the Brown Scapular?  Do we offer our daily duty?  Do we renew our Consecration often?  Have we committed ourselves completely to the Flame of Love Grace by learning all we can about "the greatest grace" given since our Lord died and left the Church and the Sacraments?

Please consider coming to the First National Conference on the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the New Pentecost June 26 and 27 in Philadelphia www.flameoflove.us/conference

Based in a meditation by Father Emil Neubert

A Free Flame of Love book can be ordered in the US at www.flameoflove.us.
 

You can now order all of our Consecration boo​ks, in English and Spanish, and our Leaders Packages in the US on our website at www.myconsecration.org.  You can order one free copy of our traditional Montfort-style book at https://www.myconsecration.org/personal-request-form/.  You can also order “33 Days to Morning Glory” for a donation plus shipping at https://www.myconsecration.org/33-days-morning-glory-english/.  If you want more information, contact raymooney@myconsecration.org.​

Please do forward these Spiritual Gems to your Catholic friends.  You can subscribe to future Gems at www.myconsecration.org/about.

God Bless you and your work,
 

		Tony
		Anthony Mullen
		MyConsecration.org
		8 St. Albans Avenue
		Newtown Square, PA 19073
		visit us at: www.myconsecration.org

Mary is as terrible to the devil as an army in battle array - A Moment with Mary

* April 28 - Saint Louis de Montfort  * Mary is as terrible to the devil as an army in battle array  --- An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  April 28 - Saint Louis de Montfort  Mary is as terrible to the devil as an army in battle array  Mary must become as terrible as an army in battle array to the devil and his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan, knowing that he has little time—even less now than ever—to destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions and set treacherous snares for Mary's faithful servants and children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than others. Saint Louis de Montfort In Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, §50 Let’s pray together  Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.   . Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.

Mary TV Daily Reflection 4/28/2015

(c)Mary TV 2014

J.M.J.  

April 28, 2015

St. Louis de Montfort 

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! I am with you also today to lead you to salvation. Your soul is restless because your spirit is weak and tired from all worldly things. You, little children, pray to the Holy Spirit that He may transform you and fill you with His strength of faith and hope, so that you may be firm in this battle against evil. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 2015)

I want to thank everyone who sent me their reflections on how to understand soul and spirit. I am very grateful for all of your ideas. But it seems that there are many ways to look at this question and I am not sure I can sort them out! What is important to us is that Our Lady spoke to us about our souls and our spirits, and so we can try to understand what she is saying to us, with peace.

Many of you did say that you understood the idea of our spirits being weak and tired. Our Lady said it was from the worldly things we encounter in our lives. Our spirits are sensitive. They take in all that we experience. If we are spending our time with the affairs of the world at the expense of the affairs of God, our spirits will be weakened. We are made for God, we are made for all that is holy and good, all that is peaceful and loving. When our spirit has to endure the selfish and godless endeavors of the world, it gets worn down from the fight.

Our Lady has spoken about worldly things before. She is concerned that we are not able to disengage from the world with all its alluring temptations. Here is a message from 2013:

February 25, 2013 "Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Sin is pulling you towards worldly things and I have come to lead you towards holiness and the things of God, but you are struggling and spending your energies in the battle with the good and the evil that are in you. Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and your life will become a simple walk towards God. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Sin is pulling us towards worldly things. The impulse to choose sin comes from our fallen nature. We do have a struggle within, a struggle between the good and the evil. Our spirit may be weakened by this struggle. It is also weakened by the temptations that abound in our environment, from the internet and all the information technologies of our day. The more of that stuff we experience each day, the more tired and weak we become. We can lose our focus, forget about God, forget about the hope of eternal life, and lose perspective.

Our Lady wants us to know that there is a solution. We don't have to be living in such a weakened state. "Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and your life will become a simple walk towards God." A simple walk towards God! This is what we really desire, not all the stuff that the world throws at us. That simple walk is not impossible. Our Lady is with us to make it possible.

She told us how in her April 25 message: "You, little children, pray to the Holy Spirit that He may transform you and fill you with His strength of faith and hope, so that you may be firm in this battle against evil." It is the Holy Spirit who can heal our tired and weak spirits. He comes to us when we call Him, to nurture our spirits, feeding them and refreshing them with His love. The Holy Spirit can heal our tired and weak spirits so that they will no longer be subject to all the world is throwing at them.

As we pray for the Holy Spirit, and wait for His healing, we can do one last thing. St. Paul gave us instructions on how to mitigate this struggle with the world, this struggle with temptation and discouragement:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.    

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4: 4-9)

Amen! Amen! We can also help to feed and strengthen our spirits, through this wonderful advice. Rejoice, forbear, renounce anxiety, give thanks, and think of all that is good. This is the good food we can feed our souls and our spirits, food that will help us continue our simple walk towards God.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2015

"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
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Mary TV Daily Reflection 4/27/2015

Vicka in prayer! Body and soul in communion with God!
(c)Mary TV 2014

J.M.J.  

April 27, 2015

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! I am with you also today to lead you to salvation. Your soul is restless because your spirit is weak and tired from all worldly things. You, little children, pray to the Holy Spirit that He may transform you and fill you with His strength of faith and hope, so that you may be firm in this battle against evil. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 2015)

Our Lady continues to be serious about the battle that we are in. She wants us to be equipped for the fight against evil. Maybe the most important preparation for us is a good understanding of who we are. We have been living in a society that seems to want to walk away from God and not recognize that we are creatures made by Him. We are being fed lots of misinformation about who we are and how we are made. Our enemy will use this misinformation to confuse us and tempt us away from God and His plan for us. And so Our Lady is giving us the truth about ourselves.

In this message she brings up something that can be a bit difficult to understand. She says: "Your soul is restless because your spirit is weak and tired from all worldly things." As soon as I read this sentence I realized that it is easy to be confused about soul and spirit. What is the relationship between our soul and our spirit? Are they the same thing?

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church there is a discussion called "Body and Soul but Truly One" (n. 362 to 368) in which we are taught about our being, soul and body:

The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7). Man whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.

In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person. But "soul " also refers to the inner most aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man.

The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. (n. 362 - 364)

Our soul is our spiritual principle and makes us capable of communion with God. But the Catechism does talk about soul and spirit, though briefly:

Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people "wholly," with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and blameless at the Lord's coming (1 Thess 5:23). The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit" signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God. (367)

I had to read this several times before it started making sense. I think the Church is saying that spirit and soul are both aspects of our spiritual being, but that they are not separate entities. Our soul is our spiritual principle, and because it is spiritual, or spirit, it orders us toward God who is supernatural and Spirit. It is because of our spirit that we can communicate with the Lord and receive from Him.

The Church works very hard to make us understand that we are not a conglomerate of different things somehow loosely pasted together. Just as our body and our soul are one being, so in our soul there is spirit but it is not distinct from our soul. It is important. Dualism can result in much abuse of our person. We can't dissect ourselves and examine our parts. The body and soul and spirit are one unit, completely necessary to our person.

Well, I am babbling. But I think it is important to work at understanding this point, because the new age and other philosophies are wreaking havoc with lives by changing the understanding of who we are and how we were made.

That said, Our Lady does talk about our spirit and our soul, and how they interrelate. Tomorrow I want to share a very nice email I received about our tired spirit and our restless soul. Christina from New Jersey makes some very good points from Scripture for us to pray about.

So, for now, let's puzzle this out as best we can, so that we can really follow Our Lady well. As she told us, "I am with you also today to lead you to salvation."

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2015

"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
www.marytv.tv

 

It was a Saturday in 880 AD… - A Moment with Mary

* April 27 – Our Lady of Montserrat (Spain) – Our Lady of Vilnius (Lithuania)  * It was a Saturday in 880 AD…  --- An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  April 27 – Our Lady of Montserrat (Spain) – Our Lady of Vilnius (Lithuania)  It was a Saturday in 880 AD… On a Saturday in the year 880, in Montserrat, province of Catalonia, Spain, some young shepherds saw a bright light coming down from heaven, accompanied by a beautiful melody. The event happened several times, until the bishop himself decided to see the occurrence for himself. He arrived on the scene and saw the same light. All the visions occurred in a cave on Montserrat mountain. When this cave was explored the people found a statue of the Madonna and Child. After trying to move the statue to a different location without any success, they thought it was God's will that the statue be venerated on the mountain of Montserrat. English: Façade of Church of Our Lady of Montserrat in Madrid (Spain). . (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The first written mention and the historical origin of the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat dates from the year 888, when Count Velloso gave the hermitage of Saint Mary to the monastery of Ripoll. Then in 1025, the bishop in charge of the premises founded the monastery of Montserrat, which quickly became a shrine of national importance. Eventually, the current Romanesque church was built, and the statue of the Madonna and Child venerated today was carved.  fr.rutamariana.com Let’s pray together  Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.   . Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.

From Mark Mallett: The Temptation to be Normal

The Temptation to be Normal

 

I have been flooded with emails the past two weeks, and will do my best to respond to them. Of note is that many of you are experiencing an increase in spiritual attacks and trials the likes of never before. This does not surprise me; it is why I felt the Lord urging me to share my trials with you, to confirm and strengthen you and remind you that you are not alone. Furthermore, these intense trials are a very good sign. Remember, towards the end of World War II, that’s when the most fierce fighting took place, when Hitler became the most desperate (and despicable) in his warfare.

Read more… »

Published in: | on April 24th, 2015 | 

April 25, 2015 Message from Our Lady of Medjugorje

(c)Mary TV 2013 J.M.J.   April 25, 2015 Dear Family of Mary! Here is the message for April 25, 2015 from Our Lady of Medjugorje: "Dear children! I am with you also today to lead you to salvation. Your soul is restless because your spirit is weak and tired from all worldly things. You, little children, pray to the Holy Spirit that He may transform you and fill you with His strength of faith and hope, so that you may be firm in this battle against evil. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan Mary TV

"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world." Saint John Paul II Be connected! www.marytv.tv

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The message of Marienfried - A Moment with Mary

An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  April 25 – Apparitions of the Great Mediatrix of Graces to Bärbel Ruess (Marienfried, Germany, 1946)  The message of Marienfried  In 1946, the Virgin Mary appeared at Marienfried, Germany (diocese of Pfaffenhofen, near Neu-Ulm) to Bärbel Ruess, then 22 years old. There were three apparitions in all—on April 25th, May 25th and June 25th of that year. Msgr Pereira Venancio, the bishop of Fatima in Portugal, wrote: "The Marienfried shrine for me is a synthesis of the Marian devotion in our time. It is one of the most important Marian shrines of the Catholic Church, where the Mother of God is venerated in countless ways." Bishop Rudolf Graber, bishop of Regensburg, wrote on July 25, 1976: "Whoever carefully examines the message of Marienfried discovers the meaning of Revelation chapter 12, which says that the ‘great red Dragon’ that is trying to destroy her Son continues to pursue the Lady clothed with the sun." On March 20, 2000, the bishop of Augsburg, Germany, authorized the pilgrimage to the shrine located in his diocese, even though the Church still has not issued a declaration on the authenticity of these apparitions. Today an ever increasing number of pilgrims visit the shrine of Marienfried. nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr Let’s pray together  Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.   .