Day #4: Imagination

MARY: Why do so many hearts that desire perfection rarely attain their objective? How many persons close themselves in silence, abandon the world, seek to free themselves from all that binds the impulses of their heart … and yet they?re always the same!

Look at a shrub covered with ivy. How beautiful it seems! The woody part is completely hidden, its leaves seem to be like a head of hair on a green trunk. … That plant doesn?t bear fruit, however; it doesn?t grow; it always remains sterile … why?

The leaves which adorn its trunk are only a parasite. The ivy beautifies the shrub externally, but it also sucks its vital forces and impedes its life. It is necessary that the trunk appears as what it is, namely a trunk, and that the leaves not be the sterile appearance of a plant, but that they be full of flowers and fruit.

How many times you also would like to appear beautiful to your own glance … Your imagination deceives you and you cover your trunk with parasites which seemingly adorn you, but in fact take away your life.

A forced and oppressive silence is nothing other than ivy … You are externally silent, but speak all the more internally with your imagination, with outbursts of temper, with so many castles in the air … Get rid of this ivy! If you must converse, do it with great simplicity and preserve your heart recollected in God. Don?t dream of doing harsh penances when your heart isn?t yet penitent. Don?t be negligent and sloppy about your clothing, but be modest and simple. Don?t disguise your egotism with the tinsel of piety, but be charitable and good to all.

I want from you a gentle, sincere, profound, simple virtue, without ostentation, without vanity, without exaggeration … So many times you dream of martyrdom when you are not capable of benefiting from the daily contrariness which you find in your family!

THE SOUL: O my good Mother, how many miseries do you not make me discover in my heart? It?s true, I?m so fanciful that I believe myself to be immediately a saint, when I?m so poor in virtues … Give me a little humility so that the parasites don?t attach themselves to the humble and hidden little plants, but to the high trunks … Make my poor heart simple so that I may live only for God.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, free my heart from false virtue. O Jesus, forgive the sins that I don?t see in myself!

LITTLE WORK: If you want to do an act of virtue and realize that it would make you pleasant in the eyes of others, put off doing it to another time, if possible, when no one will see you and praise you.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #4: Imagination first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Day #5: Hiddenness

MARY: Do you know what is the real cause of the life and the beauty of a flower? … You see its brilliant shades, smell its delicate fragrance and yet you don?t recognize that all of this buds forth from those humble roots which are hidden in the barren and often muddy earth. It is the humble earth that secures the vital part of a flower and in it that the roots are hidden and these cannot give life to the flower if they are not hidden! Virtue is always born from an intimate and profound hiddenness! Flowers must certainly be seen for Jesus says: ?Let your good deeds be seen by others?, but the seeds from which they bud, the life of the heart must remain concealed and hidden.

How many times do you not love to appear virtuous before those who see you and seek the vain praise of others? Then you remove the root from being hidden, it unhappily dries up and also the flower wilts and dies. The paid gardener cuts the flower and ties it to an artificial stem so that it may be admired … but in doing this he kills it! When you seek human praise, you cut the flower of virtue and you place it on an artificial stem … After empty praise it is nothing more than a mass of withered leaves. Therefore love hiddenness and desire that only God sees you and reads the secret of your heart.

THE SOUL: O Mary, open your humble Heart to me as a refuge so that I may hide myself in it! Human
praise disturbs me, agitates me, makes me so ugly and I recognize that I get worse after praise. I?m full of pride and I can?t free myself of it except by hiding myself in God! O Mary, give me the strength to flee human praise and my vanity!

ASPIRATION: O Mary, give me humility of heart.

LITTLE WORK: When something redounds to your praise, don?t say it for the love of holy humility.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #5: Hiddenness first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Day #6: Trust

MARY: You must hide yourself in God; but precisely in order to do this, you must trust in him alone. God must be the true life of your soul, the profound peace of your heart. Hiding oneself doesn?t mean being despondent; hiddenness is true when it is trusting. Often you see nothing around yourself but duplicity and deception; you see the insufficiency of the help of others, the poverty
of your powers, your weakness …

Trust, trust, and, as a fragile little child, throw yourself into the arms of your heavenly Father, who is your life, your riches, your peace! You must be hidden in God; you must please him alone; you must rest on him alone!

Trust in him: your faults he looks on with pity and forgives, if you repent of them with trust in his mercy. Your miseries he eliminates, if you offer yourself entirely to him. In your battles he comforts and sustains you, if you lean on him.

THE SOUL: I?m almost ashamed to speak with you, Mary, so far am I from this trust! Up to now I have trusted only in creatures, in my powers, in the good will of the great ones of the earth and for this I loved to make myself noticed, admired and praised. What a sad experience I?ve had with creatures! What a sad experience I?ve had with myself! Therefore I beg you to hide me in God and to help me to trust in him alone.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, my hope, expand the trust in God in my heart.

LITTLE WORK: When an act of virtue seems difficult, trust in God, and, filled with this trust, do it promptly … Go, thus, and perform an act of courtesy for the person you find most disagreeable.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

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Day #7: God

MARY: If you must have trust in God and hide yourself in him alone, it?s necessary to meditate on him. His infinite greatness could oppress you, even while it ought to be the most beautiful subject of your trust. What is God? He is the most pure and most perfect spirit, the Creator and Master of all things. He is a spirit; he, therefore, being infinite, embraces all, understands all, without even minimally having to work or force himself to embrace all. Nothing escapes from the tenderness of his providence: he cares for the atom as for the giant, forgives evil, exalts virtue; he loves, he loves and is infinitely good! Such is his infinite goodness that he despises no creature. He loves all of them as a father; he regards all with pity, he watches over them, welcomes them, favors them … And if he cares with such love for all creatures, how much more does he care for you, made in his image and likeness? You see him as the great God, and yet there is no moment when he does not stoop down to you, you even live, move and are in him!

?How lovable you are, O my God! Even I am your creature … you loved me even before the ages … I was nothing and already your goodness was raising me up in your eternal designs! From the kiss of your heart I came forth pure and immaculate … from your mercy I attained the strength to conquer the infernal enemy … I am Mary because you are the God of infinite goodness! If you were not God, you would not have lifted me up with such goodness and mercy!? Your mother, my daughter, is for you the living proof of that divine greatness which is infinite, yes, but is also the loving refuge for the smallest creatures! Hide yourself, then, in the heart of your God … don?t worry about the little things of this world. LOVE GOD!

THE SOUL: How can you wish that I experience no sense of bewilderment before a God so beautiful, so holy,so good, that I have so often offended? Obtain for me, then, the pardon of my so many faults and show me that same mercy, you who are the Mother of mercy. Into your hands I entrust my soul; clothe me with yourself; present me to God because only with you my trust becomes great, in spite of my so many sins.

ASPIRATION: O my God, I thank you that you created me and that you are always near me.

LITTLE WORK: Think often during the day of the great blessedness of your soul in living under the glance of God and offer him? an act of love.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

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Day #8: Jesus

MARY: I present Jesus to you this morning; he is my Son and he is the Son of God! He is the flower, the admirable, the prince of peace! Let your glance meet with his, … and tell me if he is beautiful, if he is lovable! … Do you not see Jesus? Jesus is Jesus because no beauty equals his, no love can describe him outside of his own love! … Kiss this divine Heart, daughter; I give it to you so that you may love him, so that you may love him in greater depth! …

Rest on this adored Heart … I give it to you so that it may appease your misery, so that it may eliminate it! Submerge yourself in this sea of mercies; I present it to you so that it may cancel your fearfulness and render you full of courage, with him. Do you not see Jesus? He is your divine gardener; it is he who loves you, who lovingly cares for you, who forgives you.

Do you not hear how many words of love that he makes you hear from that Heart?

You have contemplated him disfigured, dripping with blood, full of bitterness … has he not undergone this for your love?

You have admired him glorious and triumphant outside of the tomb … did he not triumph in order to be your resurrection and life?

Jesus, Jesus … is your spouse! He binds you with bonds of love that can never be broken; he has offered you to his Father as part of his Heart … do you not love your Jesus?

THE SOUL: O Mary, the very name of Jesus makes me melt with love … O how gentle and mild you are, O lovable Heart of Jesus! My fearfulness cannot endure before you because you are goodness … O how I love you, Jesus! You are the God-man who became man for my love and precisely to stoop all the way down to me and to save me!

Therefore expand your wounds, O Jesus; I want to heal my miseries in them! Open to me your divine Heart; I want to obtain from you love and virtue! I love you, O good Jesus, I love you and you gaze on me with eyes of mercy!

O Mary, teach this poor heart of mine unlimited trust, total abandonment to a God so good! …

Jesus! how sweet your name is, how gentle is your love, how great is your mercy!

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, I offer you my heart and my life; my Jesus, mercy!

LITTLE WORK: Call upon the holy name of Jesus during the day and for the sake of his love deprive yourself of something you really like at table.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a “Way of the Cross”. But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

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Day #9: My Soul

THE SOUL: I must not only know God in order to love him, I must also know myself. The careful examination of my misery makes me annihilate myself in the sight of God and makes his compassionate mercy lower itself even to me. O Lord, how wretched I am! I’m always seeking myself, full of egotism, following my whims, full of defects and strange traits … I find myself worm ridden and I am ashamed. Tell me, Mary, my extreme wretchedness doesn’t obstruct the path of God’s goodness to me, does it?

MARY: Your misery does not separate you from the mercy of God when you recognize it and humble yourself: He never disdains a heart contrite and humbled! God even takes delight in his poor creature when it lifts its heart up to him and sheds tears full of confidence and love at his feet. Do not fear. Embrace the cross which you have; rest yourself on my motherly Heart, which is full of love and mercy, and never let yourself worry when you perceive your misery, but lift your voice to me so that I may present you before the throne of God!

THE SOUL: … Myself; here is the most treacherous enemy which I have! It is a hidden enemy because it comes out in the open seldom; it is a dangerous enemy because it lives with me and because I naturally resist fighting against it; it is an astute enemy because it deceives me with false illusions of good.

O Mary, is it not true that I always seek to excuse all of my wretchedness? … I get easily upset if someone points out one of my flaws; I seek praise and am pleased with it; I consider others worse than me when in reality no one is worse than me. I criticize; I react in anger … I am a heap of faults … and yet I can hardly recognize the nothing that I am, so great is my pride!

I beg you, O Mary, to have pity on me and to teach me a little of that holy humility which made you so great so that I may recognize myself for what I am and humble myself profoundly before God. Amen.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, deliver my soul from the delusions of evil.

LITTLE WORK: Deprive yourself of something at table.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ‘Way of the Cross’. But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

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Day #10: The Grace of God

MARY: The mercy of God never abandons you, little creature; it has a way of overcoming your wretchedness and encompasses you with grace.

Grace is a supernatural gift of God with which he penetrates hearts, renews them, elevates them, transforms them into himself. What water is to the arid earth grace is for your heart. The Holy Spirit, who is the substantial love of the Father and the Son, consumes your misery with his gifts if only you cast it into those divine flames and thus he transforms you into a new being.

Grace is the support of human freedom because it is its guide, its help, its lifting up … Your soul is well established when it is under the influence of this divine grace.

Do you feel drowsy in your spirit? Lift your eyes up to God, call upon the Holy Spirit and beg him to awaken you to life and to divine love.

Do you feel depressed and disheartened? Call upon this infinite love in order to be lifted up; thus you will become accustomed to live in a spirit of continual offering and you will touch with your hand what is impossible to you, but very possible to the grace of God!

You see me so rich and great. You are astounded at this, yet all of this greatness was the work of the grace of God; you say this to me yourself in your greeting: Hail Mary, full of grace.

The grace of God is not frugal or stingy because it is the expansion of love.

You must, therefore, distrust yourself and trust much in the grace of God … Come to me, little flower of Jesus; I will rearrange your little leaves, I will revive you, I will immerse you in the mercy of Jesus. God has made me the channel of that grace which must enrich and enliven you.

ASPIRATION: Mary, Mother of grace, have pity on me.

LITTLE WORK: Recite five Hail Marys to beg from the Heart of Mary a treasure of graces.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ‘Way of the Cross’. But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #10: The Grace of God first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Conferences #112 – Sr. Ingham gives the keynote address ( 59min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

The keynote address for Newman-Scotus Symposium the is given by Sr. Mary Beth Ingham who advocates for a shift of our concept of rational activity from an intellectual centrality to that of the will along the lines of  Scotus who is the most famous of the Franciscan masters.

Notes:

Anselm comodi and justistia two desires of our rational self. Comodi for personal health, happiness. Justisia is a desire for justice, good for goodness itself. both of these things need to be pursued. Anselm and Scotus believe that these two must work together in order for us to be different from the animals.

Scotus takes this a step further.  Justisia must be developed like any other discipline. To act, not to act, and choosing not to decide. This choice not to decide is key to Scotus’ moral teaching. This option to not decide is built into our very metaphysical being and gives us the ability to love good for goodness sake itself (justistia) and this is key to being able to transcend oneself.

To love God above all things is first principle of praxis, moral action. Love for God (the greatest good ) is the thing that will bring us the greatest good, happiness. Moral living is thus harmonized with happiness. And even though this harmony is damaged by original sin it is still largely intact, but requires great balance.

Ethical beauty and artistry

Primacy of moral beauty. In a morally good act can see proportion of beauty. Known in pagan worlds. Stoics. Morality has a harmony with the will like harmony of beautiful music. And moral evil is a discord. Relating to spiritual discernment. A well trained spiritual director can pick up a spiritual discord very easily like a piano tuner. Moral training should involve this aesthetical. Moral pedagogy should be a taste for beauty, not just good taste but rational beauty, moral living. Instead of legalism we need Scotus the Franciscan.

Three dimensions of Moral Judgment

1. Love for God above all
2. Principle of moral science (derived from above and contained in the Decalogue)
3. Learned Moral experienced

Expanded notion of rational and ordered right loving. Perfection of right loving, which means loving the right thing but also loving these things in the right way.

Global and economic morality can have impact of distributive justice and environmental stress will be resolved by self restraint. The restraint then will have benefits for the spiritual in that we have moral rectitude but all the physical and social problems will be resolved.

Moral discernment, right loving, self mastery and restrained use as we do with Franciscan poverty. This has ramifications for solving social and environment issues.

This has affinity to Newman. Challenge of this kind of moral artists is to widen the moral issue.

Cor ad cor loquitor, (Heart speaking to heart) listening for God’s voice. The way to really discern.

Moral instruction can be reformulated in the terms of beauty. Thus it avoids the two extremes of rigid legalisms and arbitrary personal caprice. And this will open the way to international and inter-religious dialogue.

Question 1 –  What form does the apprehension of this beauty take?

Beauty is one of the Transcendentals closely akin to God and so the apprehension involves an imitation of Him, an ongoing conversion.

Question 2  – Is this idea of beauty and goodness in Scotus?

It is. And he gives an example of tonal discord at least in sense of the idea of the infinite being is not discordious with our intellect.

Queston 3 – Sr. Pat Hutchison, OSF, Ed.D reflects on how Sr. Mary Beth Ingham’s ideas have been well received by her community and university.

Sr Ingham responds that this is very well received in general by the post modern world and there will be more discussion of this coming up. This discussion must be given an objective basis so the the aesthetic does not become mere subjective preference.

Question 4 – Fr. McCurry asks if this notion of morality can be transferred to theology with the tota pulcra of the Immaculate Conception?

She says this is very possible. This is in line with Scotus’ “potuit, decuit, ergo fecit“, (“God could do it, it was fitting that He did it, and so He did it”) and being generous always by erring on the side of generosity with regard to attributing to God glorious works. (These are the general concepts upon which Scotus based his defense of the Immaculate Conception)

Ave Maria!

For more of this Symposium http://dev.airmaria.com/category/air-maria-shows/conferences/newman-scotus-symp-2010/

For the book that is the final fruit of this Symposium: https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/products/the-newman-scotus-reader-contexts-and-commonalities

Audio (MP3)

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Day #4: Imagination

MARY: Why do so many hearts that desire perfection rarely attain their objective? How many persons close themselves in silence, abandon the world, seek to free themselves from all that binds the impulses of their heart … and yet they?re always the same!

Look at a shrub covered with ivy. How beautiful it seems! The woody part is completely hidden, its leaves seem to be like a head of hair on a green trunk. … That plant doesn?t bear fruit, however; it doesn?t grow; it always remains sterile … why?

The leaves which adorn its trunk are only a parasite. The ivy beautifies the shrub externally, but it also sucks its vital forces and impedes its life. It is necessary that the trunk appears as what it is, namely a trunk, and that the leaves not be the sterile appearance of a plant, but that they be full of flowers and fruit.

How many times you also would like to appear beautiful to your own glance … Your imagination deceives you and you cover your trunk with parasites which seemingly adorn you, but in fact take away your life.

A forced and oppressive silence is nothing other than ivy … You are externally silent, but speak all the more internally with your imagination, with outbursts of temper, with so many castles in the air … Get rid of this ivy! If you must converse, do it with great simplicity and preserve your heart recollected in God. Don?t dream of doing harsh penances when your heart isn?t yet penitent. Don?t be negligent and sloppy about your clothing, but be modest and simple. Don?t disguise your egotism with the tinsel of piety, but be charitable and good to all.

I want from you a gentle, sincere, profound, simple virtue, without ostentation, without vanity, without exaggeration … So many times you dream of martyrdom when you are not capable of benefiting from the daily contrariness which you find in your family!

THE SOUL: O my good Mother, how many miseries do you not make me discover in my heart? It?s true, I?m so fanciful that I believe myself to be immediately a saint, when I?m so poor in virtues … Give me a little humility so that the parasites don?t attach themselves to the humble and hidden little plants, but to the high trunks … Make my poor heart simple so that I may live only for God.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, free my heart from false virtue. O Jesus, forgive the sins that I don?t see in myself!

LITTLE WORK: If you want to do an act of virtue and realize that it would make you pleasant in the eyes of others, put off doing it to another time, if possible, when no one will see you and praise you.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary. To obtain a copy of this or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #4: Imagination first appeared on AirMaria.com.

THE SOUL: Hail, O Mary, full of grace! … From the wretched earth where I am, I raise up my glance to you to admire you and I see you resplendent, beautiful, clothed in glory … Hail, O Full of grace! How the little things of this world seem vile next to you who by grace have reached the highest summits of perfection … Hail, Mother of God, my Mother! You are the most beautiful work of the Lord’s hands, you are a monument of divine mercy, you are the glory of his love … Hail, O Spouse of God!

You are the creature who loved God so much, who overcame the poverty of human nature, and flew directly to the Infinite without ever deviating. The grace of God lent you these wings of love and you were pure, immaculate, all-beautiful, all-holy … Hail, O Mary!

I admire you, O Mother; the Angels pay homage to you and exalt you; the human generations call you ‘blessed’ and raise up monuments of thanks and love to you … you are the all-holy … Hail, O Mary!

Oh! Who could have imagined that a flower so beautiful could be born of the pitiable stock of Adam? … You entered into this world full of grace: Hail, O Mary! I am small, but I am happy because I am your child. You look after me, you guide me, you lift me up. In you I have found support and life because you are the inexhaustible channel of divine mercies: Hail, O Mary!

Hail, O Mary; your sweet glance lifts me up and makes me live because your glance is full of mercy! Take into your heart my soul as a little flower, and, if instead of finding fragrance, you find parasites, cleanse it with your hand full of goodness.

Hail, O Mary! You are my life, my sweetness, my hope, O full of grace, O Immaculate Virgin. Amen.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, my hope, to you I entrust my soul.

LITTLE WORK: Abstain during the day from innocent acts of curiosity.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.

Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ‘Way of the Cross’ – But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)

To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

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