Ave Maria!

Two Marian objections are dealt with on this weeks vlog. The first is that Catholics commit idolatry by their use of statues and pictures of our Lady and the second is that the Rosary is a type of prayer which our Lord condemned in the Gospels. On both points Catholics

Ave Maria!

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Marycast #2 ( 10min) Play – In this episode Dr. Mark goes over the many topics that he will cover in this series – Her Role in Redemption, Marian apparitions, the Rosary, the Scapular, Totus Tuus, the Dogmas of the Church, the Traditions of the Church, the Mother of all Peoples, in short, everything about the Mother of God. We encourage you to email us at: marycast@airmaria.com with any questions you may have about Mary, or even any objections to our presentation. But most of all, come and join us.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Marycast Specials #2 ( 08min) Play – Dr Mark Miravalle gives us an update on current events concerning Our Lady and reponds to a question on The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. This March 31st, The Feast of the Annunciation (Easter is so early this year that the Easter week has moved the proper liturgical celebration to March 31st) the World Rosary Crusade for the 5th Marian Dogma will be taking place. Listen to other exciting news on this episode of MaryCast Specials!

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Well almost. Starting at 9:00pm tonight EWTN will replay a prerecorded recitation of the rosary by the Pope at St. Mary Major in Rome (one of the 4 Basilicas of Vatican City) and many FI’s will be there because we are in charge of the Sacristy and have our seminary and a couple of friaries in the city. So tune into EWTN at 9:00

From New Liturgical Movement

Deo Gratias!! Ave Maria!

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Topic: The First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary
(In honor of the month of the Precious Blood)

Quote:
?And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.? – Luke 22:43-4

Meditation:
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich explains that Our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane ?understood not only the consequence of every species of concupiscence, but also its own peculiar expiatory chastisement, the significance of all the instruments of torture connected with it; so that not only the thought of the instrument made Him shudder, but also the sinful rage of him that invented it, the fury and wickedness of all that had ever used it, and the impatience of all, whether innocent or guilty, who had been tortured with it. All these tortures and afflictions Jesus perceived in an interior contemplation, and the sight filled Him with such horror that a bloody sweat started from the pores of His sacred Body.? – The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, Volume 4, (Tan Books), 89

Does a mother suffer only when she witnesses the suffering of her child? Or does she suffer over and over again in her heart, anticipating the suffering of her child? Is Our Lady not aware of the avarice of Judas and the hatred of the leaders in the Temple towards her Son? A mother in her compassion cannot help but anticipate the pain and suffering of her child. It is not recorded in Holy Scripture that Our Lady was present in the Garden, but her heart was always unwaveringly united with God, and she would share in his agony on the eve of the great manifestation of God?s passionate love for mankind. She would share, the way a Mother shares in the suffering of her son: silently, meekly, heart breaking, full of love, yet accepting.

Resolution:
I will meditate in the Rosary what it cost Our Lady to accept the Will of God in the Redemption of humanity. Our Lady does not need to be present in the Garden of Gethsemane to share in the suffering of Her Son.

Marian Vow:
?The Immaculate was the universal Mediatrix of redemption, to wit, was the only Coredemptrix who has shared in person with the Redeemer – ?under Him and with Him? (LG 56) – the work of universal redemption, cooperating actively with her tears, mixed in the Blood of Her Crucified Son, to rescue sinful mankind, from Adam to the last man who lives on the earth.? – Marian Seraphic Pathways, Statutes #51

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Ave Maria!

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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.

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Topic: The Second Sorrowful Mystery – Scourging at the Pillar
(In honor of the month of the Precious Blood)

Quote:
?[Pilate said] ?I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves.? And the whole people said in reply, ?His blood be upon us and upon our children.?Then he released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.? – St Matthew 27:24-26

Meditation:
??The Virgin kept all these things in her heart?: her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth, that no human eye can follow her?.This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place within! Oh! How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene, enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness? She learned from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the great work of redemption, those whom He ?has foreknown and predestined to be conformed to His Christ,? crucified by love.? – Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity,? The Complete Works, Volume I (ICS Publications) “Last Retreat” #40.

Resolution:
Today, I will embrace one pain in order to imitate Our Lady?s interior dispositions during the scourging at the Pillar. I will say ?For the love of God, the conversion of sinners, and sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.? (St. Therese says ?For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more forever.?)

Marian Vow:
?Brothers, kissing your feet, and with all the charity of which I am capable, I beg all to use daily all possible reverence and honor toward the most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ? – St. Francis (Letter To The General Chapter).

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Ave Maria!

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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.

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Topic: The Third Sorrowful Mystery & Profound Humility – The Crowning with Thorns
(In honor of the month of the Precious Blood)

Quote:
?Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, they mocked him, saying, ?Hail, King of the Jews!? They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.? – Matthew 27: 29-31

Meditation:
?Let us consider the things of this world in which we are apt to take a vain delight. One may pride himself on his robust health and bodily strength, another on the science, knowledge, eloquence and other gifts that he has acquired through study and art. Another pride himself upon his wealth and possessions; another upon his nobility and rank; another upon his moral virtues, or other virtues which bring him spiritual grace and perfection: but must not all these gifts be regarded as so many benefits proceeding from God?? – Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart, (Tan Books)

Resolution:
Father Mary Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, the author of Humility of Heart asks ?Do you thank God for the many blessings which you are constantly receiving from Him ? from your very heart, with true humility?”
Today I will practice one act of humility by remembering any gift I have comes from God. I will begin to imitate Our Lord?s humility shown in the Crowning of Thorns and Our Lady?s Profound Humility.

Marian Vow:
Should I be surprised to find opportunities to practice humility? When I really think of Our Lord?s crowning with thorns, how can I be surprised that I might be asked to endure a humiliation? What does Our Lady teach me regarding humility? Why is Our Lady mentioned so few times in the Gospel of St. John? Didn?t Our Lord entrust the care of His Mother to the Beloved Disciple? Venerable Mary of Agreda, offers this explanation:

Our Lady was so humble that she asked St. John to strike her name from his writings unless he was absolutely unable to do otherwise. This is an expression of her Profound Humility.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Ave Maria!

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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.

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Topic: The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery – Carrying of the Cross
(In honor of the month of the Precious Blood)

Quote:
?Then therefore [Pontius Pilate] delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth. And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.? – John 19:16-17

Meditation:
?It was a dreadful thing for a mother to walk the streets over her own son?s blood. No one cared for it. No heart was touched. None suspected the heavenly mystery, at which angels were gazing in silent stupor. Mary too must tread upon it. It was sorrow almost literally trampling its own heart under foot. She must tread on that which she was worshipping. That which colored the street-mud, which blotched the paving-stones, which clung, half wet and half dry, to the garments of the multitude, was hypostatically united to the Godhead. It merited the plenitude of divine worship. Mary was adoring it at every step.? – Father Faber, The Foot of the Cross, (Tan Books), 220.

Resolution:
Today, when about my ordinary activities, I will try to remember the steps taken by Our Lady following Our Lord and Her Worship of the Precious Blood. When I walk up the stairs today, in particular I will remember the Precious Blood and I will make a Spiritual Communion.

Marian Vow:
?Let the tertiaries, if possible, participate everyday in the holy sacrifice of the altar, standing at the foot of the cross of Calvary, in union with the Immaculate Coredemptrix, to offer themselves as victims united with the Divine Victim, Jesus Crucified, receiving in their own hearts Holy Communion (or at least spiritual Communion, if it is not possible to receive the Sacrament). Nourished with the Eucharistic Jesus, united to the Immaculate Mediatrix, let the tertiaries each day live faithfully the daily obligations of their state.? – Marian Seraphic Pathways, Constitutions #25

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Ave Maria!

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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.

The post Mary Vitamin – The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Topic: The Portiuncula Indulgence – Our Lady of the Angels (August 2nd)

Quote:
?[St. Francis] embraced the Mother of Our Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he put all his trust in her and took her as his patroness for himself and his friars.” – St. Bonaventure, From The Life of St. Francis

Meditation:
The Portiuncula Indulgence refers to the plenary indulgence originally granted by Pope Honorious III at the request of St. Francis to those who visit the chapel of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi on August 2nd. This chapel was dear to the heart of Holy Father Saint Francis. (The original small chapel is now enshrined in a large basilica.) The indulgence has been extended to Franciscan churches the world over.
(See the Catholic Encyclopedia for further reading.)

Father Marion Habig, OFM, explains the history of the Portiuncula indulgence:
?A special impulse led St. Francis on a certain night to go to the chapel. There he saw our Lord and His holy Mother surrounded by a great host of angels. Filled with astonishment and reverence, the saint prostrated himself upon the ground and adored the Divine majesty. Then he heard the voice of our Lord urging him with ineffable tenderness to ask some special favor. Nothing was so near to the heart of Francis as the salvation of souls, and so, after a few moments of reflection, he asked for the grace of a full pardon for all who, being contrite and having confessed their sins, would visit this little sanctuary. Mary cast herself upon her knees before her Divine Son, and repeated the petition of her faithful servant.?
The Franciscan Book of Saints (Franciscan Herald Press:1979), 570.

Resolution:
What can be my resolution if I cannot visit a Franciscan church today?
I will imitate Holy Father St. Francis who took the Blessed Virgin as his special patroness and I will pray in a special way for the salvation of souls.

Marian Vow:
?On Marian anniversaries (solemnities, feasts and memorials) let [the Tertiaries] make every effort not to miss Holy Mass and Communion in honor of the divine Mother and Queen of the Seraphic Order.?
Marian Seraphic Pathways, Constitutions, 29b.

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

Ave Maria!

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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.

The post Mary Vitamin – The Portiuncula Indulgence – Our Lady of the Angels first appeared on AirMaria.com.

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.
3. The rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.
10. The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.
12. All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion of my rosary is a great sign of predestination.

    (Given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan) Imprimatur:
    +PATRICK J. HAYES. D.D. Archbishop of New York

    WHY the daily rosary?

    Our Lady has 117 titles. She selected this title at Fatima:? “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

    St. Francis de Sales said the greatest method of praying IS – Pray the Rosary.

    St. Thomas Aquinas preached 40 straight days in Rome, Italy on just the Hail Mary.

    St. John Vianney, patron of priests, was seldom seen without a rosary in his hand.

    “The rosary is the scourge of the devil” – Pope Adrian VI.

    “The rosary is a treasure of graces” – Pope Paul V.

    St. Padre Pio the stigmatic priest said:? “The rosary is THE WEAPON.”

    Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary.

    Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about our Lady and the Rosary. He prayed 15 decades daily.

    St. Louis de Montfort wrote:
    “The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the
    Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother.”

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The Rosary defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto…

The story of the Battle of Lepanto…

Almost from the very beginning of Islam, there were wars upon wars between Christians and Muslims. We remember the Crusade wars, seven major and several minor, which lasted for centuries. This is the story of the Battle of Lepanto, which marked the end of the Crusades and was a turning point in the history of Christianity.?

Charles Martel’s victory at Poitiers definitely stopped the Moslem invasion of western Europe. In the east Christians held firm against attacks of the Muslims until 1453. In that year, Mohammed II threw huge assaults against Constantinople and by the evening of May 29 the Byzantine capital fell. By 1571 the Muslims were firmly installed in Europe. Their ships ruled the Mediterranean Sea from the Strait of Bosporus to the Strait of Gibraltar and constantly preyed on Christian vessels unless they flew the French flag. ?

Pope Pius V, in the last year of his papacy in 1571, tried to rally the nations of Europe to join in a Holy League to stop and roll back the Moslem enemy which threatened the entire continent. Spain, whose King Philip II was also King of Austria, responded favorably. The Muslims were then engaged in the conquest of Cyprus, an island belonging to the Republic of Venice. ?

Leading Venetian officials would have preferred to have worked out some peaceful-coexistence agreement with the Sultan, but under the crusading influence of Saint Pius V, they decided to join the Holy League along with the republics of Genoa and Lucca and the dukes of Savory, Parma, Ferrara and Urbino. ?

The Papal fleet was of course part of the Holy Alliance. Pius V asked Philip to appoint Don John of Austria, the 25-year old son of Emperor Charles V, as commander-in-chief of a planned expedition against the Muslims. After receiving the banner of the Holy League from the Pope, through Cardinal Granvalla, Don John’s fleet set sail from Genoa for Naples on June 26, 1571. ?

Few historians mention that just before the departure, Philip II presented Don John with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe which she had caused to be miraculously imprinted on the cloak of the Indian peasant Juan Diego in Mexico 40 years before. Don John placed the picture in the chapel of the admiral-vessel, the Genoese John Andrew Doria, asking for Mary’s protection of his expedition. ?

On September 16, the Christian fleet put to sea. Don John anchored off of Corfu where he learned that the Muslims had leveled entire towns and villages and then retreated to the coast of Lepanto in the Gulf of Corinth.

At dawn on October 7, at the entrance to the Gulf of Patras, the Christian and Moslem fleets finally came face to face for the battle of Lepanto.?

The wind and all military factors favored the Muslims, but Don John was confident. He boarded a fast ship for a final review of his fleet. He shouted encouraging words to the men and they shouted back. After Don John returned to his own position, the wind mysteriously changed to the advantage of the Christian fleet. First-hand witnesses wrote about this moment as a most dramatic turn-of-events resulting from an “unknown factor”. ?

At that very moment, at dawn on October 7, 1571– as Vatican Archives later revealed–Pope Pius V, accompanied by many faithful, was praying the Rosary in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.? From dawn to dusk the prayers continued in Rome as the Christians and the Muslims battled at Lepanto.? When it was all over the Muslims had been defeated. Of some 270 Moslem ships, at least 200 were destroyed.? The Turks also lost 30,000 men while Christian casualties numbered between 4,000 and 5,000.?

The Rosary had won a great military victory. Like all truly great military leaders who hate war and love peace, Don John retired after his victory at Lepanto. He died a few years later at the age of 31. Another who took part in the great battle of Lepanto, Miguel de Cervantes, lived longer to write his famous tribute to Christian chivalry, Don Quixote.?

The origin of the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary on October 7th …

Following the great Christian victory at Lepanto, Pope St. Pius V declared that henceforth a commemoration of the Rosary would be a part of the Vatican’s Mass on every October 7.? His successor, Pope Gregory XIII, went further. In 1573 he established the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary–to be celebrated at all Churches which had specific altars dedicated to the Rosary.?

In 1671 Pope Clement X extended observance of the feast to all of Spain.

Only 12 years later in 1683 the Muslims again swept into Europe. With 200,000 men, they laid siege to Vienna. After months of valiant resistance by a small garrison, the city was relieved by an army under John Sobieski, King of Poland. The Rosary, to which the King was dedicated, was again instrumental in a military victory. Pope Innocent XI consecrated September 12 of that year to the Holy Name of Mary. The Moslem hordes were hurled back yet again at Peterwardein in Hungary by Prince Eugene on the Feast of Out Lady of the Snows, August 5, 1716. As a result of this victory, Pope Clement XI extended the Feast of the Rosary to the Universal Church.

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