Ave Maria!

Mary Vitamin for Ash Wednesday

Topic: Lenten FragranceQuote:
St. Bonaventure
??No desert doth the Virgin Mary abhor, no sinner doth she despise; but wherever she passes, she spreads the sweet incense of pardon.??
The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin

Meditation:
St. Bonaventure
??The desert is the heart of the sinner, which is indeed devoid of grace and virtue. The aromatical spice, the sweet incense of the soul

is the aspiration of hope for pardon. The Blessed Virgin Mary, therefore, came up from the desert as a pillar of smoke [Song of Songs 3:6], when, by her prayers the heart of the sinner received the smoking incense of pardon. This smoke is generated from the aromatical myrrh of contrition, and of the incense in confession, and from all the powders of the perfumer in manifold satisfactions.??
The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin

Resolution:
I will begin my Lent at the feet of Our Lady praying for her guidance and offering my Lenten resolutions to her. I will pray that she will produce in me the aromatical myrrh of contrition and the sweet incense of pardon.

Marian Vow:
St. John Vianney (The Curè of Ars)
??When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.??
Francis W. Johnston, The Voice of the Saints, (Tan Books) 46.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

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Ave Maria!

Mary Vitamin for February 18th

Topic: Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Quote:
St. Bernardine of Siena
??[T]he Blessed Virgin had always the majesty of God, and her own nothingness, present to her mind.??
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary, (Tan Books), 466.

Meditation:
??On another occasion our Lord showed Saint Bridget two ladies. The one was all pomp and vanity: “She,?? He said, ‘is Pride; but the other one whom thou seest with her head bent down, courteous towards all, having God alone in her mind, and considering herself as no one, is Humility, her name is Mary.??
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary, (Tan Books), 469.

Resolution:
I will try to practice “courteousness towards all?? in the manner of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By my courteous behavior, I will practice the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Marian Vow:
??Great is the responsibility of members of M.I.M. if they do not radiate this presence of the Immaculate, especially if they hide or disfigure it. The Immaculate is the light and ‘the light is not placed under the bushel, but upon the lampstand so as to give light to all’ (Mt 5, 15). The Immaculate is the light through the testimony to her virtues practiced by those consecrated to Her, through the good example of a life edifying and fruitful in the apostolate of each member of M.I.M.: men ‘see your good works’ (Mt. 5, 16) and glorify the Immaculate. So ought it to be.??
Marian Seraphic Pathways, Statutes, #72

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: The First Station

Quote:
??What is truth???

Meditation
Ven Mary of Agreda communicates the words of Our Lady:

??In order to crush the head of Lucifer and overcome pride and arrogance, my Son observed this patient silence in his Passion, permitting Himself to be treated as an ignorant and foolish criminal. As the Teacher of this philosophy and as the Physcian of the sickness of sin, He would not deny the charges nor defend or justify Himself, nor refute those who accused Him, showing us by his own living example, how to oppose and counteract the intentions of the serpent.

… But do thou, my daughter, prerserve the doctrine of my divine Son and that which comes from me. Abhor human ostentation, suffer in silence and let the world consider thee ignorant; for it does not know where true wisdom dwells.??
The Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 582.

Resolution:
Wisdom and truth are embraced by accepting the Lord and His Cross. Our Lady will help me to do “Whatever He says.?? I will look for an obedience today.

Marian Vow:
John Paul II
“This Wisdom is Jesus Christ himself, the Eternal Word of God, who perfectly reveals and accomplishes the will of the Father (cf.Heb 10:5-10). Mary invites everyone to accept this Wisdom. To us too she addresses the command she gave to the servants at Cana in Galilee during the marriage feast: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
Veritatis Splendor, August 6, 1993. #119

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate
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Ave Maria!

Topic: Second Station – Jesus Accepts the Cross

Quote:
Venerable Mary of Agreda
??The image of [Mary’s] divine Son, thus wounded, defiled and bound, remained so firmly fixed and imprinted in the soul of our Queen, that during her life it was never effaced, and remained in her mind as distinctly, as if She were continually beholding Him with her own eyes.??
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 573.

Meditation:
Pontius Pilate,
??Behold the Man!??

Father Faber
??[V]erily there was need that some one should testify that He was man, who, if He had been only Man could never have survived the crushing of the winepress which the threefold pressure “of His Father, of demons, and of men??had inflicted upon Him. Then rose over the crowded piazza that wild yell of blasphemous rejection by His own people, which still rings in our ears, still echoes in history, still dwells even in the savage frightfulness of its reality.??
The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 206.

Resolution:
One time today, when presented with a difficulty or with my Lenten resolution, I will try to be like Our Lady who silently and courageously accepted the Cross of Her Son and united Her heart to it.

Marian Vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
??No other grace can be compared with that of carrying the cross out of love for our Lord.??
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 79.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary II first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: The Third Station: The First Fall

Quote:
Fr. Faber
??He is her Babe of Bethlehem. She is helpless. She cannot get near. Omnipotence held her heart fast. In a peace far beyond man’s understanding, she followed slowly on to Calvary, Magdalen and John beside themselves with grief, but feeling as if grace went out from her blue mantle enabling them also to live with broken hearts.??
Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books:1978), 208.

Meditation:
John Paul II
??Mary shares our human condition, but in complete openness to the grace of God. Not having known sin, she is able to have compassion on every kind of weakness. She understands sinful man and loves him with a Mother’s love. Precisely for this reason she is on the side of truth and shares the Church’s burden in recalling always and to everyone the demands of morality. Nor does she permit sinful man to be deceived by those who claim to love him by justifying his sin, for she knows that the sacrifice of Christ her Son would thus be emptied of its power. No absolution offered by beguiling doctrines, even in the areas of philosophy and theology, can make man truly happy: only the Cross and the glory of the Risen Christ can grant peace to his conscience and salvation to his life.??
Veritatis Splendor

Resolution:
In my failings as well as my victories this Lent Our Lady will keep me company and give me the strength of her blue mantle and permit no “beguiling doctrines?? to deceive me. I will turn to Our Lady for wisdom and strength.

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel
??O holy Mother of God, behold your child! I am not worthy but Jesus gave me to you. I am part of His legacy, teach me to behave that a child of Mary ought to behave.??
Praying With Mother Katharine Drexel, 14

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary III first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: Fourth Station ” Jesus Meets His Mother

Quote:
??She is going up to Calvary, in brave tranquility, to help to slay the Babe of Bethlehem.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 211.

Meditation:
??The fourth dolor contains within itself the whole science and mystery of cross-bearing. This is the wisdom we learn from the picture while we gaze on Mary in the streets of the cruel Jerusalem. The eye of her soul sees the fair-haired Boy in the temple, whom she sought more than twenty years ago, while her bodily eye is fixed on the pale and bleeding and earth-stained Man, going with sound of trumpet and the chorus of earth’s curses to His doom. And shall we, who gave Him that heavy cross to bear, and kept weighting it after we had given it, if our cruelty were not satisfied, refuse to bear the sweet grace giving crosses which He binds on us, so little too as, when we have borne them for a while, we are forced to confess they are? Oh, no! let us do now as Mary did them “look at Him who is on the road before us, and see how the beauty of the Sacred Heart sits with meek majesty and attractive love on the woe-worn disfigured Countenance.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978 , 239.

Resolution:
Is my suffering any greater than Mary’s who helped “to slay the Babe of Bethlehem??? I will try to be grateful for the small crosses which come my way.

Marian vow:
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
??You must constantly carry the cross which He lays on you, be it interior or exterior.??
The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 81.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary IV first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: Fifth Station of the Cross
Jesus meets Simon the Cyrene

Quote:
??Judas was almost a dolor by himself. We learn, from the revelations of the saints, how she had striven in prayer for that wretched soul. She had lavished all manner of kindness of him, as if he had been more to her than either Peter or John.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 218.

Meditation:
Is Our Lady reminded of Judas when she sees Simon’s compliance? Couldn??t Judas have borne the weight?

??This was her first lesson in the loss of souls. If we were more like saints, we should know something of what it meant. The Passion began by losing an apostle’s soul, and ended by saving the soul of a poor outcast thief. Such are the ways in which God takes His compensations.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 219.

Resolution:
Today, I will pray for the conversion of sinners with the heart of Mary.

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel
??O Mary, make me endeavor, by all means in my power, to extend the kingdom of the Divine Son and offer incessantly my prayers for the conversion of those who are yet in darkness or estranged from the fold of Your Divine Son.??
Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, 14

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary V first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: The Sixth Station: Jesus Meets Veronica

Quote:
Father Faber
??How [Mary] longed to wipe the blood from His face with her veil, to part His tangled hair to remove with lightest touch that cruel crown, to lift the Cross off His shoulders and see whether her broken heart would not give her superhuman strength to carry it for Him!??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 212.

Meditation:
One can almost imagine the Mother of Christ standing beside St. Veronica in the crowd encouraging her spiritual daughter to great courage and sublime compassion.

John Paul II
??[T]he Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of all the redeemed. As though by a continuation of that motherhood which by the power of the Holy Spirit had given him life, the dying Christ conferred upon the ever Virgin Mary a new kind of motherhood’spiritual and universal??towards all human beings, so that every individual, during the pilgrimage of faith, might remain, together with her, closely united to him unto the Cross, and so that every form of suffering, given fresh life by the power of this Cross, should become no longer the weakness of man but the power of God.
Salvifici Doloris, #26
February 11, 1984

Resolution:
Today I will think of St. Veronica as a symbol of a child of Mary who looks to offer Christ comfort in his sufferings. How can I comfort the crucified in the presence of Our Lady today?

Marian Vow:
St. Katharine Drexel (feast day March 3rd)
??What likeness is there between me and my Mother? Do I try to be like her, in her love for Jesus? In her devotion to the cause for which he died “the salvation of souls- in her absolute submission to the will of God, in her patient suffering? Holy Mary, Mother of God and my Mother too, let me stand at the foot of the cross with you, to learn its lessons and to learn to be like the Mother of Sorrows. Amen.??

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary, VI first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: The Seventh Station-The Second Fall of Jesus

Quote:
??Cosmas of Jerusalem used to say, “While I keep my hope in thee unconquerable, O Mother of God, I shall be safe. I will fight and overcome my enemies with no other buckler than thy protection and thy all-powerful aid.????
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary (Tan Books: 1978), 122.

Meditation:
St. Maximilian Kolbe
??Cooperation with grace is very important, for in response to grace comes further new grace. The more faithful we will be to grace, the more we will have reason to hope that we will receive more graces. One thing is sufficient; now, this moment, cooperate with its grace. “There is but one ultimate cause of spiritual breakdown, namely, the lessening of the flow of grace through personal ignoring of it. Then the soul weakens. This flows from infidelity to grace. How can we assure ourselves against such an eventuality? St. Alphonsus Liguori tells us to turn to the Blessed Mother and place all our trust and hope in her. Experience proves this to be true.??
Will to Love (Marytown Press: 1998), 72-3.

Resolution:
Today, I will ask over and over that my Heavenly Mother keep me responsive to the life of grace.

Marian Vow:
Ven Mary of Agreda
??O Great Chieftainess of the martyrs, Queen of the courageous, Mistress of all the imitators of thy Son, if I am thy daughter and disciple, as Thou condescendest to call me, and as my Lord wishes to merit, do not reject my longing desire to follow thy footsteps on the way of the cross. If in my weakness I have fallen, do Thou, my Lady and Mother, obtain for me the courage of a contrite heart, justly humiliated on account of its vile ingratitude. Gain for me through thy prayers the love of the eternal Father, which is so precious, that only thy powerful intercession can obtain it and only my Lord and Redeemer can merit it for me.??
Mystical City of God, Volume III (Tan Books: 2006), 579-580.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary VII first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Topic: The Eighth Station ” Jesus Meets the Sorrowing Women

Quote:
Father Faber
??The absence of the apostles was a keen aggravation of Mary’s sorrow.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 217.

Meditation:
The sorrowing, faithful women and St. John the Evangelist were there but where were the rest of the chosen Twelve?

??[The absence of the apostles] was a triple wound to her. It wounded her in her love of Jesus. She knew how deep the wound was which it made in His Sacred Heart. She saw how, far beyond the cruel scourging and the barbarous coronation, Her beloved was tormented by this cruel abandonment of Him by those whom He had loved beyond the rest of men. She could go near to fathoming the anguish which this was causing Him. Moreover, her own love of Him underwent a cruel martyrdom in seeing Him thus deserted, and by those whose very office should have taken them to Calvary, who should have been witnesses of His Crucifixion as well as of His Resurrection.??
Father Faber, At the Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books: 1978), 217.

Resolution:
Today, when I pass the crucifix, I will spiritually place myself in the company of Our Lady and pray for perseverance.

Marian Vow:
St. John Damascene
??Having confidence in you, O Mother of God, I shall be saved. Being under your protection, I shall fear nothing. With your help I shall give battle to my enemies and put them to flight; for devotion to you is an arm of salvation.??
Francis Johnston, Voices of the Saints, (Tan Books) 141.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate

The post Mary Vitamin – Stations of the Cross with Mary VIII first appeared on AirMaria.com.