August 1st: St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorist Order

SAINT ALPHONSUS LIGUORI Bishop and Doctor of the Church (1696-1787)

An Act of Spiritual Communion

My Jesus, I believe that You are truly in the Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I long for you in my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart as though You have already come. I embrace You and unite myself entirely to you; never permit me to be separated from You!

I say that it is the will of God that all graces should come to us by the hands of Mary. Sooner would heaven and earth be destroyed than would Mary fail to assist anyone who asks for her help, provided he does so with a good intention and with confidence in her.

To learn more of this good doctor, continue on…

Saint Alphonsus was born near Naples, in 1696. He was a devout child and also a prodigy in many ways. At sixteen he became a doctor in civil law; and upon entering this career he met great success and fame A mistake, however, by which he lost an important case, showed him the vanity of human fame and glory. He decided to abandon the legal profession at the age of twenty-seven, to serve God alone.

Saint Alphonsus was ordained a priest in 1726, and he soon became as renowned a preacher as he had been a lawyer. He was an excellent confessor, and wrote a manual which has been used ever since for the instruction of those who administer the sacrament of Penance. A musician, Saint Alphonsus gave up his instruments to devote himself more perfectly to his priestly duties; he nonetheless composed joyous religious hymns for the poor folk he heard singing in the streets, that they might glorify God and not waste their voices and efforts in vain and worldly songs.

He later founded the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, for the evangelization of the poor. At the age of sixty-six he became Bishop of Saint Agatha and undertook the reform of his diocese . He made a vow never to waste a moment of time, and, though his life was spent in prayer and work, he also wrote many books. These volumes were filled with such great wisdom that in 1871 he was declared by Pius IX a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Alphonsus wrote his first book at the age of forty-nine, and in his eighty-third year had published about sixty volumes; at that time his director forbade him to continue writing. The best known of his books is his volume entitled “The Glories of Mary”, by which he exalts the graces and narrates the wondrous deeds of mercy of the Mother of God for those who invoke Her. He is also well known for his writings on the Holy Eucharist.

St. Alphonsus lived a long life and he came to know much suffering in his later years with arthritis and is the patron of those who suffer with this disease. He died in 1787 at age 91.

Reflection: Let us do with all our heart and attention the duty of each day, leaving to God the result as well as the care of the future.

To Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

My Lord Jesus Christ, Who, through the love which You bear toward men, does remain with them day and night in this Sacrament, full of mercy and love, awaiting, inviting and receiving all who come to visit You, I believe that You are present in the Sacrament of the Altar.

From the abyss of my nothingness, I adore You. I thank You for all the graces which You have bestowed upon me, particularly for having given me Yourself in this Sacrament, for having given my Your most holy Mother Mary for my advocate, and for having called me to visit You in this church.

I pay my homage to Your most loving Heart for these three ends: first in thanksgiving for this great Gift; second to make amends to You for all the outrages which You do receive in this Sacrament from all Your enemies; third I intend by this visit to adore You in all the places on earth in which You are present in this Sacrament and in which You are the least honored and the most abandoned.

My Jesus, I love You with my whole heart. I am sorry for having offended Your infinite goodness so many times. I purpose, with the help of Your grace, never more to offend You; and, at this moment, mniserable as I am, I consecrate my whole being to You.

I give You my entire will, all my affections and desires and all that I have. From this day forward, do what You will with me and with everything that belongs to me.

I ask and desire only Your holy love, the gift of final perseverance and the perfect fulfillment of Your will. I commend to You the souls in Purgatory, particularly those who were most devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary; and I also commend to You all poor sinners.

Finally, my dear Saviour, I unite all my affections with the affections of Your most loving Heart; and thus united, I offer them to Your Eternal Father, and I entreat Him, in Your Name and for Your sake, to accept and answer them. Amen.

When we have recourse to this Divine Mother, not only we may be sure of her protection, but that often we shall be heard more quickly, and be thus preserved, if we have recourse to Mary and call on her holy name, than we should be if we called on the name of Jesus our Savior. And the reason is that to Jesus, as a Judge, it belongs also to punish; but mercy alone belongs to the Blessed Virgin as a patroness. Meaning, that we more easily find salvation by having recourse to the Mother than by going to the Son–not as if Mary was more powerful than her Son to save us, for we know that Jesus Christ is our only Savior, and that He alone by His merits has obtained and obtains salvation for us; but it is for this reason: that when we have recourse to Jesus, we consider Him at the same time as our Judge, to whom it belongs to chastise ungrateful souls, and therefore the ,confidence necessary to be heard may fail us but when we go to Mary, who has no other office than to compassionate us as Mother of mercy, and to defend us as our advo­cate, our confidence is more easily established, and is often greater.

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We often obtain more promptly what we ask by calling on the name of Mary than by invoking that of Jesus. Her Son is Lord and  Judge of all, and discerns the merits of each one; and therefore if He does not immediately grant the prayers of all, He is just. When, however, the Mother’s name is invoked, though the merits of the suppliant are not such as to deserve that his prayer should be granted, those of the Mother supply that he may receive,  Many things are asked from God, and are not granted but if they are asked from Mary, and are obtained. And how is this?  It is because God has thus decreed to honor His Mother.

It is impossible for a client of Mary, who is faithful in honoring and recommending himself to her, to be lost. To some this proposition may appear, at first sight, ex­aggerated; but anyone to whom this might seem to be the case I would beg to suspend his judgment, and, first of all, read what I have to say on this subject. When we say that it is impossible for a client of Mary to be lost, we must not be understood as speaking of those clients who take advantage of this devotion that  they may sin more freely.

And therefore, those who disapprove of the great praises bestowed on the clemency of this most Blessed Virgin, because it causes the wicked to take advantage of it to sin with greater freedom, do without foundation, for such presumptive people deserve chastisement, and not mercy, for their rash confidence. It is therefore to be understood of those clients who, with a sincere desire to amend, are faithful ­in honoring and recommending themselves to the Mother of God. It is, I say, morally impossible that such as these should be lost.

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Mary is the Hope of Sinners

STORY
St Antonine relates that there was a sinner who was at enmity with God, and who had a vision in which he found himself before the dread tribunal; the devil accused him, and Mary defended him.  The enemy produced the catalogue of his sins; it was thrown into the scales of divine justice, and weighed far more than all his good works.  But then his great advocate, extending her sweet hand, placed it on the balance, and so caused it to turn in favour of her client; giving him thereby to understand that she would obtain his pardon if he changed his life; and this he did after the vision, and was entirely converted.

PRAYER
O most pure Virgin Mary, I venerate your most holy heart, which was the delight and resting-place of God, your heart overflowing with humility, purity, and divine love.  I, an unhappy sinner, approached you with a heart all loathsome and wounded.  O compassionate Mother, disdain me not on this account; let such a sight rather move you to greater tenderness, and excite you to help me.  Do not stay to seek virtues or merit in me before assisting me.  I am lost, and the only thing I merit is hell.  See only my confidence in you and the purpose I have to amend.  Consider all that Jesus has done and suffered for me, and then abandon me if you can.  I offer you all the pains of His life; the cold that He endured in the stable; His journey into Egypt; the blood which He shed; the poverty, sweats, sorrows, and death that He endured for me; and this in your presence.  For the love of Jesus, take charge of my salvation.  Ah, my Mother, I will not and cannot fear that you will reject me, now that I have recourse to you and ask your help.  Did I fear this I should be offering an outrage to your mercy, which goes in quest of the wretched, in order to help them.  O Lady, deny not your compassion to the one to who Jesus has not denied his blood.  But the merits of this blood will not be applied to me unless you recommend me to God.  Through you do I hope for salvation.  I ask not for riches, honors, or earthly goods.  I seek only the grace of God, love towards your Son, the accomplishment of His will, and His heavenly kingdom, that I may love Him eternally.  Is it possible that you will not hear me?  No; for already you have granted my prayer, as I hope; already you pray for me; already you obtain for me the graces that I ask; already you take me under your protection.  My Mother, abandon me not.  Never, never cease to pray for me, until you see me safe in heaven at your feet, blessing and thanking you forever.  Amen.

The post The Glories of Mary #9: Mary, Our Hope first appeared on AirMaria.com.

To thee do we sigh, mourning and weeping, in this valley of tears.

STORY
A young nobleman who was on a sea-voyage begun to read an obscene book, in which he took much pleasure.  A religious noticed this, and said to him:  “Are you disposed to make a present to our Blessed Lady?”  The young man replied that he was.  “Well,” the other answered, “I wish that, for the love of the most holy Virgin you would give up that book, and throw it into the sea.”  “Here it is, Father,” said the young man.  “No,” replied the religious, “you must yourself make Mary this present.”  He did so; and no sooner had he returned to Genoa, his native place, than the Mother of God so inflamed his heart with divine love that he entered a religious Order.

PRAYER
O my soul, see what a sure hope of salvation and eternal life our Lord has given you, by having in his mercy inspired you with confidence in the patronage of his Mother; and this, notwithstanding that so many times by your sins you have merited his displeasure and hell.  Thank your God, and thank your protectress Mary, who has condescended to take you under her mantle; for of this you may be well convinced, after the many graces that you have received by her means.  O yes, I do thank you, my most loving Mother, for all you have done for me who am deserving of hell.  And from how many dangers have you not delivered me, O Queen!  How many inspirations and mercies have you not obtained for me from God!  What service, what honor, have I ever rendered you, that you should do so much for me?  I know that it is your sole goodness that has impelled you.  Ah, too little would it be in comparison with all that I owe you, did I shed my blood and give my life for you; for you have delivered me from eternal death; you have enabled me, as I hope, to recover divine grace; to you, in fine, I owe all I have.  My most amiable Lady, I, poor wretch that I am, can make you no return but that of always loving and praising you.  Ah, disdain not to accept the tender affection of a poor sinner, who is inflamed with love for your goodness.  If my heart is unworthy to love you, because it is impure and filled with earthly affections it is you who must change it.  Ah, change it, then.  Bind me to my God, and bind me so that I may never more have it in my power to separate myself from his love.  You ask of me that I should love your God, and I ask of you that you should obtain this love for me, to love him always; this is all that I desire.  Amen.

The post The Glories of Mary #12: Mary Our Mediatress first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The Necessity of the Intercession of Mary for our Salvation.

STORY

The history of Theophilus, written by Eutychian, patriarch of Constantinople, and who was an eye-witness of the fact he relates, is well known.  It is attested by St Peter Damian, St Bernard, St Bonaventure, St Antonine, and by others quoted by Father Crasset.

Theophilus was archdeacon of the church of Adana, a city of Cilicia, and he was held in such veneration by the people that they wished to have him for their bishop, but he, out of humility, refused the dignity.  It happened that evil-disposed persons accused him falsely of some crime, and for this he was deposed from his archdeaconry.  He took this so much to heart, that, blinded by passion, he went to a Jewish magician, who made him consult Satan, that he might help him in his misfortune. The devil told him that if he desired to be helped by him, he must renounce Jesus and his Mother Mary, and consign him the act of renunciation written in his own hand.  Theophilus immediately complied with the demand.  The next day, the bishop having discovered that he had been deceived, asked the archdeacon’s pardon, and restored him to office.  No sooner was this accomplished than his conscience was torn with remorse, and he could do nothing but weep.  What could he do?  He went to a church, and there casting himself all in tears at the feet of an image of Mary, he thus addressed her:  “O Mother of God, I will not despair as long as I can have access to you, who are so compassionate, and have the power to help me.”  He remained thus weeping and praying to our Blessed Lady for forty days – when, lo, one night the Mother of mercy appeared to him, and said:  “O Theophilus, what have you done?  You have renounced my friendship and that of my Son, and for whom?  For his and my enemy.”  “O Lady”, answered Theophilus, “you must pardon me, and obtain my forgiveness from your Son.”  Mary seeing his confidence, replied:  “Be of good heart; I will intercede for you with God.”  Theophilus, encouraged by these consoling words, redoubled his tears, mortifications, and prayers, and never left the image.  At last Mary again appeared to him, and with a cheerful countenance said:  “Theophilus, be of good heart; I have presented your tears and prayers to God; he has accepted them, and has already pardoned you; but from this day forward be grateful to him and faithful.”  But, O Lady,” replied Theophilus, “that is not yet enough to satisfy me entirely; the enemy still possesses that impious writing in which I renounced you and your Son.  You can oblige him to surrender it.”  Three days afterwards, Theophilus awoke in the night, and found the writing on his chest.  On the following day he went to the church where the bishop was, and, in the presence of an immense concourse of people, cast himself at his feet, and with bitter tears related all that had taken place, and delivered into his hands the infamous writing.  The bishop committed it to the flames in the presence of all the people, who did nothing but weep for joy, and praise the goodness of God, and the mercy of Mary shown towards this poor sinner.  But he, returning to the church of our Blessed Lady, remained there for three days, and then expired, his heart filled with joy, and returning thanks to Jesus and to his most holy Mother.

PRAYER

O Queen and Mother of mercy, who dispenses graces to all who have recourse to you with so much liberality, because you are a Queen, and with so much love, because you are our most loving Mother; to you do I, who am so devoid of merit and virtue, and so loaded with debts to the divine justice, recommend myself this day.  O Mary, you hold the keys of all the divine mercies; forget not my miseries, and leave me not in my poverty.  You are so liberal with all, and give more than you are asked for, O, be thus liberal with me.  O Lady, protect me, this is all that I ask of you.  If you protect me, I fear nothing.  I fear not the evil spirits; for you are more powerful than all of them.  I fear not my sins; for you by one word can obtain their full pardon from God.  And if I have your favour, I do not even fear an angry God; for a single prayer of you will appease him.  In fine, if you protect me, I hope all; for you are all-powerful.  O Mother of mercy, I know that you take pleasure and do glory in helping the most miserable, and, provided they are not obstinate, that you can help them.  I am a sinner, but am not obstinate; I desire to change my life.  You can, then, help me; O, help me and save me.  I now place myself entirely in your hands.  Tell me what I must do in order to please God, and I am ready for all, and hope to do all with your help, O Mary – Mary my Mother, my light, my consolation, my refuge, my hope.  Amen, amen, amen.

The post The Glories of Mary #13: Mary Our Mediatress first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The Necessity of the Intercession of Mary for our Salvation.

STORY
In Germany a man fell into a grievous sin; through shame he was unwilling to confess it; but, on the other hand, unable to endure the remorse of his conscience, he went to throw himself into a river; on the point of doing so, he hesitated, and weeping, he begged that God would forgive him his sin without his confessing it.  One night, in his sleep, he felt someone shake his arm, and heard a voice which said, “Go to confession.”  He went to the church, but yet did not confess.  On another night, he again heard the same voice.  He returned to the church; but when he arrived there, he declared that he would rather die than confess that sin.  But before returning home he went to recommend himself to the most Blessed Virgin, whose image was in that church.  He had no sooner knelt down than he found himself quite changed.  He immediately arose, called a confessor, and weeping bitterly, through the grace which he had received from Mary, made an entire confession of his sins; and he afterwards declared that he experienced greater satisfaction than if he had obtained all the treasures of the world.

PRAYER
I will address you, O great Mother of God, in the words of St Bernard; “Speak, O Lady, for your Son hears you, and whatever you ask you will obtain.”  Speak, speak, then, O Mary, our advocate, in favor of us poor miserable creatures.  Remember that it was also for our good that you did receive so great power and so high a dignity.  A God was pleased to become your debtor by taking humanity of you, in order that you might dispense at will the riches of divine mercy to sinners.  We are your servants, devoted in a special manner to you; and I am one of these, I trust, even in a higher degree.  We glory in living under your protection.  Since you do good to all, even to those who neither know nor honor you, rather, more, to those who outrage and blaspheme you, how much more may we not hope from your benignity, which seeks out the wretched in order to relieve them, we who honor, love, and confide in you?  We are great sinners, but God has enriched you with compassion and power far exceeding our iniquities.  You can, and have the will to save us; and the greater is our unworthiness, the greater shall be our hope in order to glorify you the more in heaven, when by your intercession we get there.  O Mother of mercy, we present you our souls, once cleansed and rendered beautiful in the blood of Jesus Christ, but, alas, since that time, defiled by sin.  To you do we present them; do you purify them.  Obtain for us true conversion; obtain for us the love of God, perseverance, heaven.  We ask you for much; but what is it?  Perhaps you can not obtain all?  It is perhaps too much for the love of God bears you?  Ah, no! for you have only to open your lips and ask your divine Son; he will deny you nothing.  Pray, then, pray O Mary, for us; pray; you will certainly obtain all; and we shall with the same certainty obtain the kingdom of heaven.

The post The Glories of Mary #14: Mary Our Advocate first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Mary is so tender an Advocate that she does not refuse to defend the Cause even of the most miserable.

STORY
In one of our missions, after the sermon on the Blessed Virgin Mary, which it is always customary in our Congregation to preach, a very old man came to make his confession to one of the Fathers.  Filled with consolation he said, “Father, our Blessed Lady has granted me a grace.”  “What grace has she granted you?”  the confessor asked.  “You must know, Father,” he replied, “that for five-and-thirty years I have made sacrilegious confessions, for there is a sin which I was ashamed to confess; and yet I have passed through many dangers, have many times been at the point of death, and had I then died, I should certainly have been lost; but now our Blessed Lady has touched my heart with grace to tell it.”  This he said weeping, and shedding so many tears, that he quite excited compassion.  The Father, after hearing his confession, asked him what devotion he had practised.  He replied that on Saturdays he had never failed to abstain from milk-diet in honor of Mary, and that on this account the Blessed Virgin had shown him mercy.  At the same time he gave the Father leave to publish the fact.

PRAYER
O great Mother of my Lord, I see full well that my ingratitude towards God and you, and this too for so many years, has merited for me that you should justly abandon me, and no longer have a care of me, for an ungrateful soul is no longer worthy of favors.  But I, O Lady, have a high idea of your great goodness; I believe it to be far greater than my ingratitude.  Continue, then, O refuge of sinners, and cease not to help a miserable sinner who confides in you. O Mother of mercy, deign to extend a helping hand to a poor fallen wretch who asks you for pity.  O Mary, either defend me yourself, or tell me to whom I can have recourse, and who is better able to defend me than you, and where I can find with God a more clement and powerful advocate than you, who are his Mother.  You, in becoming the Mother of our Saviour, was thereby made the fitting instrument to save sinners, and was given me for my salvation.  O Mary, save him who has recourse to you.  I deserve not your love, but it is your own desire to save sinners, that makes me hope that you love me.  And if you love me, how can I be lost?  O my own beloved Mother, if by you I save my soul, as I hope to do, I shall no longer be ungrateful, I shall make up for my past ingratitude, and for the love which you have shown me, by my everlasting praises, and all the affections of my soul.  Happy in heaven, where you reign, and will reign forever, I shall always sing your mercies, and kiss for eternity those loving hands which have delivered me from hell, as often as I have deserved it by my sins.  O Mary, my liberator, my hope, my Queen, my advocate, my own sweet Mother, I love you; I desire your glory, and I love you forever.  Amen, amen.  Thus do I hope.

The post The Glories of Mary #15: Mary Our Advocate first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Mary is the Peace-maker between Sinners and God.

STORY
In Braganza there was a young man, who, after giving up the confraternity, abandoned himself to so many crimes that one day, in despair, he went to drown himself in a river; but before doing so, he addressed our Blessed Lady, saying: “O Mary, I once served you in the confraternity; help me.”  The most Blessed Virgin appeared to him and said:  “Yes, and now what are you going to do?  Do you wish to lose yourself both in soul and body?  Go, confess your sins, and rejoin the confraternity.”  The young man, encouraged hereby, thanked the Blessed Virgin, and changed his life.

PRAYER
O my most sweet Lady, since your office is, as William of Paris says, that of a mediatress between God and sinners, I will address you in the words of St Thomas of Villanova; “Fulfil your office in my behalf, O tender advocate; do your work.  Say not that my cause is too difficult to gain; for I know, and all tell me so, that every cause, no matter how desperate, if undertaken by you, is never, and never will be, lost.  And will mine be lost?  Ah no, this I cannot fear.  The only thing that I might fear is, that, on seeing the multitude of my sins, you might not undertake my defence.  But, on seeing your immense mercy, and the very great desire of your most sweet heart to help the most abandoned sinners, even this I cannot fear.  And who was ever lost that had recourse to you?  Therefore I invoke your aid, O my great advocate, my refuge, my hope, my mother Mary.  To your hands do I entrust the cause of my eternal salvation.  To you do I commit my soul; it was lost, but you have to save it.  I will always thank our Lord for having given me this great confidence in you; and which, notwithstanding my unworthiness, I feel is an assurance of salvation.  I have but one fear to afflict me, O beloved Queen, and that is, that I may one day, by my own negligence, lose this confidence in you.  And therefore I implore you, O Mary, by the love you bear to Jesus, yourself to preserve and increase in me more and more this sweet confidence in your intercession, by which I hope most certainly to recover the divine friendship, that I have up to now so madly despised and lost; and having recovered it, I hope, through you, to preserve it; and preserving it by the same means, I hope at length to thank you for it in heaven, and there to sing God’s mercies and yours for all eternity.  Amen.  This is my hope; thus may it be, thus will it be.

The post The Glories of Mary #16: Mary Our Advocate first appeared on AirMaria.com.

AND AFTER THIS OUR EXILE SHOW UNTO US THE BLESSED FRUIT OF THY WOMB, JESUS

STORY
In the year 1604, in a city of Belgium, there were two young men, students, but who, instead of attending to their studies, gave themselves up to a life of debauchery.  One night they were both in the house with an evil companion, when one of them, named Richard, returned home, leaving his companion there.  After he had reached home, and had begun to undress, he remembered he had not that day said some “Hail Marys,” that he was in the habit of reciting.  Feeling very sleepy he was loath to say them; he did himself violence, and repeated them, though without devotion, and half asleep.  He then lay down, and had fallen into a sound slumber, when he was suddenly roused by a violent knocking at the door, and without its opening he saw his companion, deformed and hideous, standing before him.  “Who are you?” he cried out.  “What! Do you not know me?” “Ah, yes! But how you are changed; you seem to me a devil.”  “Truly,” he exclaimed, “poor unfortunate creature that I am, I am damned; and how?  When I was leaving that wicked house, a devil came and strangled me; my body is in the street, and my soul in hell; and you must know,”  added he, “that the same fate awaited you, had not the Blessed Virgin preserved you in consideration of that little act of homage of the ‘Hail Mary.’  Fortunate are you if only you know how to take advantage of this warning sent you by the Mother of God.”  With these words he opened his mantle, and, showing the flames and serpents by which he was tormented, he disappeared.  Richard immediately burst into sobs and tears, and, casting himself prostrate on the ground, he returned thanks to Mary, his protectress; and, while thinking how to change his life, he heard the bell of the Franciscan monastery ringing for matins.  “Ah! It is there,” says he, “that God calls me to do penance.”  He went immediately to the convent, and implored the Fathers to admit him.  But they were hardly willing to do so, knowing his wicked life; but he, sobbing bitterly, told all that had taken place; and two Fathers being sent to the street, and having found the strangled body, which was as black as a coal, they admitted him.  From that time forward Richard led a most exemplary life, and at last went to preach the Gospel in the Indies, and then to Japan, where he had the happiness of giving his life for Jesus Christ, being burnt alive for the faith.

PRAYER
O Mary, my most dear Mother, in what an abyss of evils should I not now be, if you had not so many times delivered me with your compassionate hand!  How many years ago should I not have been in hell, had you not saved me by your powerful prayers!  My grievous sins already drove me there; divine justice had already condemned me; the devils already longed to execute the sentence; and you did fly to my aid, and save me without being even called or asked.  And what return can I make to you, O my beloved protectress, for so many favors and for such love?  You also did overcome the hardness of my heart, and did draw me to your love and to confidence in you.  And into how many other evils should I not have fallen, if with your compassionate hand you had not so often helped me in the dangers into which I was on the point of falling!  Continue, O my hope, to preserve me from hell, and from the sins into which I may still fall.  Never allow me to have this misfortune – to curse you in hell.  My beloved Lady, I love you.  Can your goodness ever endure to see a servant of yours that loves you lost?  Ah! then, obtain that I may never more be ungrateful to you and to my God, who for the love of you has granted me so many graces.  O Mary, tell me, shall I be lost?  Yes, if I abandon you.  But is this possible?  Can I ever forget the love you have borne me?  You, after God, are the love of my soul.  I can no longer trust myself to live without loving you.  O most beautiful, most holy, most amiable, sweetest creature in the world, I rejoice in you happiness, I love you, and I hope always to love you both in time and in eternity.  Amen.

The post The Glories of Mary #18: Mary Our Salvation first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Mary Succors Her Clients In Purgatory.

STORY

A noble lady, who had an only son, was informed one day that he had been killed.  The murderer had by chance taken refuge in her own palace.  She then began to reflect that Mary had forgiven the executioners of her Son; and therefore determined that she also would pardon that criminal for the love of the sorrowful Mary.  She not only did this, but also provided him with a horse, money and clothes, that he might escape.  Her son then appeared to her, and told her that he was saved, and that for her generous conduct to his enemy the divine Mother had delivered him from purgatory, in which otherwise he would have had to suffer for a long time, and that he was then going to Paradise.

PRAYER

O Queen of heaven and earth!  O Mother of the Lord of the world!  O Mary, of all creatures the greatest, the most exalted, and the most amiable! It is true that there are many in this world who neither know you nor love you; but in heaven there are may millions of angels and blessed spirits, who love and praise you continually.  Even in this world, how many happy souls are there not who burn with your love, and live enamoured of your goodness!  O, that I also could love you, O Lady worthy of all love!  O, that I could always remember to serve you, to praise you, to honor you, and engage all to love you!  You have attracted the love of God, whom, by your beauty, you have, so to say, torn from the bosom of his Eternal Father, and engaged to become man, and be your Son.  And shall I, a poor worm of the earth, not be enamoured of you?  No, my most sweet Mother, I also will love you much, and will do all that I can to make others love you also.  Accept, then, O Mary, the desire that I have to love you, and help me to execute it.  I know how favorably your lovers are looked upon by God.  He, after his own glory, desires nothing more than yours, and to see you honored and loved by all.  From you, O Lady, do I expect all; through you the remission of my sins, through you perseverance.  You must assist me at death, and deliver me from purgatory; and finally, you must lead me to heaven.  All this your lovers hope from you, and are not deceived.  I, who love you with so much affection, and above all other things, after God, hope for the same favors.

The post The Glories of Mary #19: Mary Our Salvation first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Mary Leads Her Servants to Heaven.

STORY

The Franciscan Chronicles relate that a certain Brother Leo saw in a vision two ladders the one red, the other white.  On the upper end of the red ladder stood Jesus and on the other stood His holy Mother.  The brother saw that some tried to climb the red ladder; but scarcely had they mounted some rungs when they fell back, they tried again but with no better success.  Then they were advised to try the white ladder and to their surprise they succeeded for the Blessed Virgin stretched out her hand and with her aid they reached heaven.

PRAYER

O Queen of heaven, Mother of holy love!  Since you are the most amiable of creatures, the most beloved of God, and his greatest lover, be pleased to allow the most miserable sinner living in this world, who, having by your means been delivered from hell, and without any merit on his part been so benefited by you and who is filled with love for you, to love you.  I would desire, were it in my power, to let all men who know you not, know how worthy you are of love, that all might love and honor you.  I would desire to die for the love of you, in defence of your virginity, of your dignity of Mother of God, of your Immaculate Conception, should this be necessary, to uphold these your great privileges.  Ah! my most beloved Mother accept this my ardent desire, and never allow a servant of yours who loves you, to become the enemy of your God, whom you love so much.  Alas!  Poor me, I was so for a time, when I offended my Lord.  But then, O Mary, I loved you but little, and strove but little to be beloved by you.  But now there is nothing that I so much desire, after the grace of God, as to love and be loved by you.  I am not discouraged on account of my past sins, for I know that you, O most benign and gracious Lady, do not disdain to love even the most wretched sinners who love you; even more, that you never allow yourself to be surpassed by any in love.  Ah! Queen most worthy of love, I desire to love you in heaven.  There, at your feet, I shall better know how worthy you are of love, how much you have done to save me; and thus I shall love you with greater love, and love you eternally, without fear of ever ceasing to love you.  O Mary, I hope most certainly to be saved by your means.  Pray to Jesus for me.  Nothing else is needed; you have to save me; you are my hope.  I will therefore always sing O Mary, my hope, you have to save me.

The post The Glories of Mary #20: Mary Our Salvation first appeared on AirMaria.com.