Mary: The Icon of Our Future: Tuesday, September 1, 2015


J.M.J. "Mary's assumption is an event that concerns us, precisely because every human being is destined to die. But death is not the last word. It is the passage to the eternal happiness in store for those who toil for truth and justice and do their utmost to follow Christ."

--Saint John Paul II (1978-2005)

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If you will be in the Sioux Falls area during September, then please join us as we recite the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary:



First Friday, September 4th=10:00 a.m. (Saint Michael Cemetery)


First Saturday, September 5th=9:40 a.m. (The Mothers' Garden)


Tuesday, September 8th (The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary)=6:00 p.m. (The Mother's Garden)


Saturday, September 12th (The Most Holy Name of Mary; Bishop Swain's Birthday)=9:40 a.m. (The Mothers' Garden)


Tuesday, September 15th (Our Lady of Sorrows)=6:00 p.m. (The Mothers' Garden)
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The Immaculate One: Monday, August 24, 2015


J.M.J. "The Fathers and writers of the Church, well versed in the heavenly Scriptures, had nothing more at heart than to vie with one another in preaching and teaching in many wonderful ways the Virgin's supreme sanctity, dignity, and immunity from all stain of sin, and her renowned victory over the most foul enemy of the human race. This they did in the books they wrote to explain the Scriptures, to vindicate the dogmas, and to instruct the faithful. These ecclesiastical writers in quoting the words by which at the beginning of the world God announced his merciful remedies prepared for the regeneration of mankind—words by which He crushed the audacity of the deceitful serpent and wondrously raised up the Hope of our race, saying, 'I will put enmities between you and the woman, between your seed and her Seed'—taught that by this divine prophecy the merciful Redeemer of mankind, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was clearly foretold: That His most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was prophetically indicated; and, at the same time, the very enmity of Both against the evil one was significantly expressed. Hence, just as Christ, the Mediator between God and man, assumed human nature, blotted the handwriting of the decree that stood against us, and fastened it triumphantly to the cross, so the most holy Virgin, united with Him by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was, with Him and through Him, eternally at enmity with the evil serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with her immaculate foot."

--Blessed Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854.

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I am on Retreat starting today. Therefore, posts will resume--God willing--on Tuesday, September 1st. My prayers for all who gather at this Blog.
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Our Spiritual Mother: Sunday, August 23, 2015


J.M.J. In his January 1, 2007 Homily during the Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City on the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, which was also the Fortieth World Day of Peace, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (2005-2013) recognized the centuries-old doctrine of the Spiritual Maternity, not to mention the fact that Our Blessed Lady is also Mater Ecclesiae or "Mother of the Church":

As Mother of Christ, Mary is also 
Mother of the Church, which my venerable 
Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI chose 
to proclaim on 21 November 1964 
at the Second Vatican Council. Lastly, 
Mary is the Spiritual Mother of all humanity, 
because Jesus on the Cross shed His blood 
for all of us and from the Cross He entrusted us 
all to her maternal care.



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Mary is Our Queen!: Saturday, August 22, 2015


J.M.J. "50. In some countries of the world there are people who are unjustly persecuted for professing their Christian faith and who are deprived of their divine and human rights to freedom; up till now reasonable demands and repeated protests have availed nothing to remove these evils. May the powerful Queen of creation, whose radiant glance banishes storms and tempests and brings back cloudless skies, look upon these her innocent and tormented children with eyes of mercy; may the Virgin, who is able to subdue violence beneath her foot, grant to them that they may soon enjoy the rightful freedom to practice their religion openly, so that, while serving the cause of the Gospel, they may also contribute to the strength and progress of nations by their harmonious cooperation, by the practice of extraordinary virtues which are a glowing example in the midst of bitter trials."

Venerable Pius XII, Encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (October 11, 1954), 50.
 
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This Vicar of Christ's Tender Devotion to Our Lady: Friday, August 21, 2015


J.M.J. Today's Saint, Pius X (1903-1914), wrote his Encyclical, Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, which was dated February 2, 1904, to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by his Predecessor, Blessed Pius IX (1846-1878). 

It is very well worth reading:


Here is only a very brief passage.

"25. This same charity we desire that all should earnestly endeavor to attain, taking special occasion from the extraordinary feasts in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Oh how bitterly and fiercely is Jesus Christ now being persecuted, and the most holy religion which He founded! And how grave is the peril that threatens many of being drawn away by the errors that are afoot on all sides, to the abandonment of the faith! 'Then let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall' (I Cor. x., 12). And let all, with humble prayer and entreaty, implore of God, through the intercession of Mary, that those who have abandoned the truth may repent. We know, indeed, from experience that such prayer, born of charity and relying on the Virgin, has never been vain. True, even in the future the strife against the Church will never cease, 'for there must be also heresies, that they also who are reproved may be made manifest among you' (I Cor. xi., 19). But neither will the Virgin ever cease to succor us in our trials, however grave they be, and to carry on the fight fought by her since her conception, so that every day we may repeat: 'To-day the head of the serpent of old was crushed by her' (Office Immac. Con., 11. Vespers, Magnif.). "
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A Pope Praised the Marian Insight of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor: Thursday, August 20, 2015


J.M.J. "In another famous Sermon on the Sunday in the Octave of the Assumption the Holy Abbot described with passionate words Mary's intimate participation in the redeeming sacrifice of her Son. 'O Blessed Mother', he exclaimed, 'a sword has truly pierced your soul!... So deeply has the violence of pain pierced your soul, that we may rightly call you more than a martyr for in you participation in the passion of the Son by far surpasses in intensity the physical sufferings of martyrdom' (14: PL 183, 437-438). Bernard had no doubts: 'per Mariam ad Iesum', through Mary we are led to Jesus. He testifies clearly to Mary's subordination to Jesus, in accordance with the foundation of traditional Mariology. Yet the text of the Sermone also documents the Virgin's privileged place in the economy of salvation, subsequent to the Mother's most particular participation (compassio) in the sacrifice of the Son. It is not for nothing that a century and a half after Bernard's death, Dante Alighieri, in the last canticle of the Divine Comedy, was to put on the lips of the Doctor Mellifluus the sublime prayer to Mary: 'Virgin Mother, daughter of your own Son, / humble and exalted more than any creature, / fixed term of the eternal counsel' (Paradise XXXIII, vv. 1 ff.)."

--Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, October 21, 2009
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The Two Hearts Give Their Love to Us: Wednesday, August 19, 2015


J.M.J. Saint John Eudes (1601-1680), whose liturgical Memorial is today, wrote lovingly of the Two Hearts:

"I give myself to the incomprehensible love by which my Jesus and His good Mother gave me Their beloved Heart in a very special manner, and in union with that same love, I give this same Heart as something that belongs to me and of which I can dispose for the glory of God . . . ."

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What consoling news (from "Rome Reports")!

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