It is amazing where the rosary takes you - I have been inspired to think and contemplate the secrets of our Lady's interior life, which can never be fully understood in this life but we can at least try to ponder. Our Lady's interior life is an enclosed garden where the Holy Trinity dwells. She is the feminine reflection of the Holy Trinity. She is the singular delight of God the Father who freely chose to adorn her with all the heavenly gifts freely poured from the treasure of His divinity. When we contemplate Mary's interior life, it opens a vista to reveal the secrets of the Holy Trinity and shows us the Father's heart. If we mortals are made in the image and likeness of God how much more then is she the Immaculate One, in her interior life made in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. I am in awe of our Lady's special role and privelege. The nine choirs of angels bow in admiration the patriarchs weep with joy. How great is our God in giving us such a beautiful mother, our Lady of all the virtues. She truly is God's masterpiece. She is God’s work of Art, the Divine artist reveals Himself through her in a mysterious, yet, most profound way.
Such a beautiful reflection! I know that Mary was given a singular grace—to be conceived without original sin. But what amazes me just as much is what she did with that grace. Through the freedom of her human will, she chose God—again and again—through every trial of her life. An unwed mother facing uncertainty and judgment. Traveling while fully pregnant, with nowhere safe to rest. Giving birth in poverty, surrounded not by comfort, but by animals. Becoming a refugee in a foreign land. Watching her Son be rejected, betrayed, tortured, and crucified. Living through the fear and uncertainty of the early Church. And yet… she did not turn away. She did not fall into sin. In every moment—confusion, sorrow, fear—she remained faithful. Not because her life was easy, but because her “yes” was real. Mary shows me that grace is a gift… but faithfulness is a choice.
Amen! "O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!"
POPE PIUS IX (1854) Our glorious restoration came by way Christ in and through the Virgin Mary because she is united her Son by a most intimate indissoluble bond. Our Lady a singular delight of God the Father, He endowed her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts freely poured from the treasury of his divinity. She is the Immaculate conception – in her the fulness of holy innocence and sanctity, which no human mind could comprehend fully. One cannot imagine anything greater. She will crush the head of the serpent with her immaculate foot. She is the Ark of Noah built by divine command and she escaped entirely safe and sound from the common shipwreck of the whole world. She is the ladder of Jacob by whose rungs the angels of God ascended and descended. She is the burning bush of Moses in the holy place burning on all sides, which was not consumed or injured in any way but grew green and blossomed beautifully. She is the impregnable tower before the enemy from which hung one thousand shields and all the armour of the righteous. She is that garden enclosed on all sides, which cannot be violated or corrupted. She is the resplendent city of God, which has its foundations on the holy mountain. She is that most august temple of God, which radiant with divine splendours, is full of the glory of God. The Blessed Virgin was, in the name and by order of God Himself, proclaimed full of grace by the angel Gabriel. This was a singular and solemn salutation, never heard before, showed that the Mother of God is the seat of all divine graces and is adorned with all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. She is an almost infinite treasury, an inexhaustible abyss of these gifts – together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction. She is an unspeakable miracle of God. She is that spotless dove, the holy Jerusalem, as the exalted throne of God, ark & house of holiness, which eternal wisdom built, the Queen who came forth from the mouth of the Most High. The Blessed Virgin is the crown of all miracles and truly the Mother of God that she approaches as near to God Himself as is possible for a created being. She sits at the right-hand side of her Son. She is above all men and angels in glory. The Fathers have lavished their praise – she is the lily among thorns, the land entirely intact, Virgin undefiled, immaculate, ever blessed, flawless, brightest star, most beautiful paradise of innocence, incorruptible wood, fountain ever clear, the most holy temple, treasure of immortality the one and only daughter of life, evergreen, The most glorious Blessed Virgin Mary was reparatrix of the first parents, the giver of life to posterity, always united with God and joined to Him by an eternal covenant. She is the tabernacle created by God Himself in the womb of Ann and formed by the Holy Spirit, of super eminent sanctity. A tabernacle created by God Himself and formed by the Holy Spirit, truly a work in royal purple, adorned and woven with gold. She is the first and special work of God – she came into the world all radiant like the dawn. Immaculate in every respect, most innocent, entirely spotless, all pure, stainless, model of purity & innocence, more beautiful than beauty, more lovely than loveliness, more holy than holiness, singularly holy and most pure in soul and body, the only one who has become the dwelling place of all the graces of the most Holy Spirit. God alone, excepted, Mary is more excellent than all and by nature fair and beautiful and more holy than the Cherubim and Seraphim. She is the august tabernacle of the Divine Word. ‘To praise her all the tongues of heaven and earth do not suffice’. The one spotless and most beautiful dove, as a rose ever blooming, as perfectly pure, ever immaculate and ever blessed. She is innocence never sullied, the second Eve who brough forth Emmanuel. Our soul overflows with joy and our tongue with exaltation. She is glory of the prophets and apostles, the honour of the martyrs, the crown of joy of all the saints, a safe refuge and trustworthy helper. In her, who is the most excellent glory, ornament and impregnable stronghold of the holy Church. She is the destroyer of all heresies. She is conciliatrix, appointed by God to be the Queen of Heaven and earth. She is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints and even stands at the right hand of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. She presents her petitions in a most efficacious manner, what she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard. POPE PIUS XII (1954) Lady, Ruler, Queen. She is the ‘mother of the King of the Universe’, whose snow white brow is crowned with a golden diadem. She is a Queen, since she bore a son who at the very moment of His conception, because of the hypostatic union of the human nature with The Word, was also as man King and Lord over all things. The heavenly voice of the angel Gabriel was the first to proclaim Mary’s royal office. On Golgotha she offered that Son to the Eternal Father, together with the complete sacrifice of her maternal rights and maternal love, like a new Eve, for all the sons of Adam. For ‘yout honour and dignity surpass the whole of creation’ (St Germanus)
Garabandal, this is such a beautiful, Spirit-filled praise of Our Mother. It reminds me of the time when my Mom was on her deathbed. She was in the hospital getting some medical tests to determine the cause of her pain. We did not know it at the time, but she was to have an infection in her aorta that would cause a sudden aneurysm and death shortly after. It was the middle of the night when Mom suddenly began to greet Our Blessed Mother with the most loving, effusive titles ever given to Our Lady. Mom had her eyes open and was looking at the space above her bed. I jumped up out of my chair thinking that she was trying to pray the rosary but Mom just looked at me and said she was fine, all the while keeping her eyes on what I truly believe was the Blessed Mother keeping a promise that Mom wholeheartedly believed in. Mom faithfully prayed a prayer in the Pieta that promised Our Lady's presence when death was approaching. Andy3, some years ago, posted this prayer and had a similar story to tell. (https://motheofgod.com/threads/cons...rs-of-our-life-to-the-most-holy-virgin.18008/). As Her Son has promised, Mary will also not be outdone in generosity. Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
I have just read the Encylical Ineffabilis Deus 1854 by Blessed Pope Pius IX on the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception - one is left with the impression of a confident and holy Church that viewed itself as salt and light for the world and the singular pillar & ground of Truth. How far the Church has fallen, it has become merely one of many quangos in the world competing for attention. That the current incumbents in the hierarchy are Marian minimalists is frightening - the world is aflame with fire at the same time that they dishonour our Lady with their crass ecumenical mindsets downplaying her role (but we get the leaders we deserve). https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm Below is the conclusion to the encyclical - it is further proof to me that the solution to the current problems in the Church (and the world) can only be overcome by a return to Marian piety and the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart & the declaration of the Fifth Marian Dogma. Our soul overflows with joy and our tongue with exultation. We give, and we shall continue to give, the humblest and deepest thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord, because through his singular grace he has granted to us, unworthy though we be, to decree and offer this honor and glory and praise to his most holy Mother. All our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin — in the all fair and immaculate one who has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world: in her who is the glory of the prophets and apostles, the honor of the martyrs, the crown and joy of all the saints; in her who is the safest refuge and the most trustworthy helper of all who are in danger; in her who, with her only-begotten Son, is the most powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix in the whole world; in her who is the most excellent glory, ornament, and impregnable stronghold of the holy Church; in her who has destroyed all heresies and snatched the faithful people and nations from all kinds of direst calamities; in her do we hope who has delivered us from so many threatening dangers. We have, therefore, a very certain hope and complete confidence that the most Blessed Virgin will ensure by her most powerful patronage that all difficulties be removed and all errors dissipated, so that our Holy Mother the Catholic Church may flourish daily more and more throughout all the nations and countries, and may reign “from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth,” and may enjoy genuine peace, tranquility and liberty. We are firm in our confidence that she will obtain pardon for the sinner, health for the sick, strength of heart for the weak, consolation for the afflicted, help for those in danger; that she will remove spiritual blindness from all who are in error, so that they may return to the path of truth and justice, and that here may be one flock and one shepherd. Let all the children of the Catholic Church, who are so very dear to us, hear these words of ours. With a still more ardent zeal for piety, religion and love, let them continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared; nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race. And since she has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints, and even stands at the right hand of her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions in a most efficacious manner. What she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard. Given at St. Peter’s in Rome, the eighth day of December, 1854, in the eighth year of our pontificate.
Our Lady, in the mind of God, had two names before being given the name Mary. The Immaculate conception (as revealed at Lourdes) and she "filled with grace" as revealed by the Archangel Gabriel. Her very nature is the Immaculate conception.
Our Lady is the hidden treasure of the Church, a priceless pearl buried waiting to be utilised as God desires. Her rosary is the weapon for these times.
St Pius X saw the infiltration of modernism and was very alarmed. He wrote the encyclical against it and priests had to take an oath against it. Leo XIII had his famous vision of demons entering the citadel of the Church. Our Lady came in 1917 to warn and provide an antidote. But John XXIII refused to obey. And here we are. As Malachi Martin once said " we are now in the IF" as in "if my requests are not met..."
I was hit by a realisation this morning in my prayer time that our Lady is queen of martyrs because she suffered interiorly the passion of her Son, which was always to the forefront of her mind from the moment of his conception. I must try to contemplate the dolours sufferings of our Lady more often to please her Immaculate Heart.
OUR LADY, QUEEN OF MARTYRS (a personal reflection) Our Lady is the Queen of Martyrs because Her Blessed Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Martyrs. All of our Lady's sufferings were internal within her heart and soul, hidden, yet know to the Blessed Trinity. Enlightend by her spouse the Holy Spirit, our Lady, also Queen of the Prophets, was always aware of the coming passion of her sweet Son. She carried the burden of that knowledge at all times with a sweet bitterness at the coming passion of the Redeemer; Jesus always present in her mind from the moment of his conception in her womb. Blessed Albert the Great had another name for our Lady, 'a bitter sea' for like King David she could say 'my life is wasted with grief; and my years in sighs, my sorrow is continually before me'. Mary suffered an interior martyrdom, as predicted by Simeon, the sword of sorrow ploughed into the tender marrow of her soul. Yet our Lady remained tranquil amidst the sea of sorrows since she possessed full knowledge the coming passion of her beloved Son at the moment of her fiat, which was a complete self-donation to the will of God. Not once in her innocent life did Mary ever think of herself, she never counted the personal cost but lived in complete surrender to Divine Providence. Arnold of Chartres says, 'that whoever had been present at Mount Calvary, to witness the great sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb would there have beheld two great altars, the one in the body of Jesus and the other in the heart of Mary'. The Blessed Virgin suffered by freely sacrificing her Son's life (her fiat was total), He suffered in His flesh, she in her Immaculate Heart. The heart of Mary became a mirror of the passion of her Son. Her Blessed Son, in his life had revealed, 'where your treasure is, there will your heart will be also' (Matt 6v21). Mary's treasure was her Son. Mary, by love lived more in her son than in herself. From the crib to cradling her Son in her arms after death, Jesus alone was the instrument of her interior martyrdom; 'I have trodden the wine-press alone' (Isaiah). Within the heart of Mary resided two kinds of love for her Son, supernatural love by which she loved him as her God and natural love by which she loved him as her son. In the Immaculate Heart these two loved united as one and she offerered the merits of her sufferings to that of her son at Calvary. 'There was no love like her love, so there was no sorrow like her sorrow' (Richard of St Victor)
I believe that Mary, Tabernacle of the Holy Trinity, united with the agonizing Heart of Jesus on the Cross, absorbed all His ardent love for the salvation of souls. However, since only Christ can accomplish Redemption, she unites herself to Him, transforming this love for us into unceasing supplications. As the human creature closest to the Holy Trinity, the episode of the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon—a unique moment at the foot of the Cross, in the mystical union of two hearts—is renewed at every Holy Mass on earth.
