Ave Maria Meditations

God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.

Saint John Henry Newman, canonized October 13, 2019

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In the homily on Oct 14, 2019 (Saint Callistus I, pope and martyr), Fr. Josemaria relates today’s Gospel (Monday 28th Week of Ordinary Time) to the thinking of two recently canonized saints, Pope St. Paul VI (canonized in 2014), and  St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, canonized yesterday. Father points out that both saints proclaimed the truth about the Church. Our Lord’s authority—shown in the power of his Cross, the sign of his passion, death and resurrection, by which He saves us—is a unique authority, power, and wisdom, as is that of his Church.

In this world, only the Church has the mission and full message of the Gospel. Pope St. Paul VI proclaimed: “This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people’s salvation.” St. John Henry Newman denounce the error of “liberalism in religion,” a false doctrine which holds that “there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another.” He said: “Never did Holy Church need champions against it more sorely than now, when, alas! it is an error overspreading, as a snare, the whole earth.”

Words that are as true today as they were when spoken over 140 years ago.

Father’s quotations are taken from:

– Pope St. Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 5 (http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi.html)

– Cardinal St. John H. Newman’s “Biglietto Speech,” given on the occasion of his appointment as Cardinal, May 12, 1879 (https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/biglietto-speech-5245)

Ave Maria!

Mass: St. Callistus I – Opt Mem

Readings: Monday 28th Week of Ordinary Time
1st: Rom 1:1-7
Resp: Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
Gsp: Lk 11:29-32

More on the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101419.cfm

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Msgr. Arthur B. Calkins gives the first homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, WI on Oct 11, 2019, at our Symposium “Mary Coredemptrix: Why the Dogma?” where he explains how we need to focus on Mary whom he relates to the new earth, descending from heaven as a holy city as depicted in the book of Revelations in the readings today, and to the Annunciation. From this, he expounds on Mary’s Immaculate Conception and how she is the New Eve, the Handmaid of the Lord who could cooperate in a unique way with Christ’s work of becoming a slave to set us free. Upon this, the Coredemption of Mary is based, which ultimately rests on the Absolute Primacy of Christ. As such, to deny the Coredemption of Mary is to deny Christ as outlined by Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner.

This symposium took place at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe October 11-12, 2019 and had 8 talks, 2 QA sessions, and 2 Homilies. The theme was “Mary Coredemptrix: Why the Dogma?” and included a commemoration of the Marian legacy of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner. It was sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in conjunction with Mark Miravalle and the International Marian Association (IMA)

For more from this Symposium:

AirMaria: http://dev.airmaria.com/tag/la-crosse-coredemption-2019/

YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlOrBtQAkz8&list=PLejh_e0-LN4wkjsZE2EGx0TMa3OqaGihp

Guadalupe Shrine, La Crosse, WI: https://www.guadalupeshrine.org

Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate: https://marymediatrix.com/

International Marian Association (IMA): https://internationalmarian.com/

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Ave Maria!

Mass: Friday 27th Week of Ordinary Time – Weekday
Readings: 
1st: joe 1:13-15, 2:1-2
Resp: psa 9:2-3, 6, 16, 8-9 0
Gsp: luk 11:15-26

More on the Readings: http://dev.airmaria.com/r?m=1521

Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/90378558559/videos/680860692436470
and YouTube: https://youtu.be/wMMaGjYmTWY

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Epiphany is a season especially set apart for adoring the glory of Christ. The word may be taken to mean the manifestation of His glory, and lead us to the contemplation of Him as a king upon His throne in the midst of His court, with His servants around Him, and His guards in attendance.

At Christmas we commemorate His grace, and in Lent His temptation, and on Good Friday His sufferings and death, and on Easterday His victory, and on Ascension Thursday His return to the Father, and in Advent we anticipate His second coming. And in all of the seasons He does something, or suffers something , but on Epiphany and the days after it, we celebrate Him, not as on His field of battle, or in His solitary retreat, but as an august and glorious King.

Then only, during His whole earthly history, did He fulfill the type of Solomon, and held a court, and receive the homage of His subjects, namely, when He was an infant. His throne was His undefiled mother’s arms; His chamber of state was a cottage or a cave; the worshipers were the Wisemen of the east, and they brought presents, gold, frankincense, and myrrh . All around and about Him seemed of earth, except to the eye of faith; one note alone had He of divinity. As great men in this world are often plainly dressed and look like other men, all but as having some one costly ornament on their breast or on their brow, so the Son of Mary in a lowly dwelling, and in an infant’s form, was declared to be the Son of God most high, the Father of ages, and the Prince of Peace, by His star, a wonderful appearance which had guided the Wisemen all the way from the east even onto Bethlehem. The only display of royal greatness, the only season of majesty, homage, and glory, which our Lord had on earth, was in His infancy and youth.

St. John Henry Newman

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Ave Maria Meditations

Blessed Mary has no chance place in the divine dispensation. The Word of God did not nearly come to her and go from her. He did not pass through her, as He visits us in Holy Communion. It was no heavenly body which the Eternal Son assumed, fashion by the angels and brought down to this lower world. No, He imbibed, He absorbed into His Divine Person her blood and the substance of her flesh; by becoming man of her, He received her lineaments and features, as the appropriate character in which He was to manifest Himself to mankind.

The child is like the parent, and we may well suppose that by His likeness to her was manifested her relationship to Him. Her sanctity comes, not only of her being His Mother, but also of His being her Son.

And hence the titles which we are accustomed to give to her (such as) He is the Wisdom of God; she therefore is the Seat of Wisdom. His presence is heaven; she therefore is the Gate of Heaven. He is infinite mercy; she then is the Mother of Mercy. She is the Mother of “fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope” (Sir 24:24).

Saint John Henry Newman

The post On the Mother of the Lord first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant. One alone is true to us. One alone can be true. One alone can be all things to us. One alone can supply our needs. One alone can train us up to our full perfection. One alone can give a meaning to our complex and intricate nature. One alone can give us tune and harmony. One alone can form and possess us.

Are we allowed to put ourselves under His guidance? This surely is the only question. Has He really made us His children and taken possession of us by His Holy Spirit? Are we still in His kingdom of grace, in spite of our sins? We trust, that, in spite of our sins, He will receive us still, everyone of us if we seek His face with love unfeigned and holy fear.

Let us then do our part, as He has done His and much more. Let us say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73:25-6).

Saint John Henry Newman.

The post One Alone first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Blessed Mary was no chance place in the divine dispensation. The word of God did not merely come to her and go from her. He did not pass through her, as He visits us and Holy Communion. It was no heavenly body which is the eternal Son assumed, fashion by the Angels and brought down to this lower world. No, He absorbed into His divine Person her blood and the substance of her flesh; by becoming man of her, He received her liniments and features, as the appropriate character in which He was to manifest Himself to mankind.

The child is like the parent, and we may well suppose that by His likeness to her was manifested her relationship to Him. Her sanctity comes, not only of her being His mother, but also of His being her Son…and hence the titles which we are accustomed to give to her… He is the wisdom of God; therefore she is the Seat of Wisdom. His presence is Heaven; she therefore is the Gate of Heaven. He is infinite mercy; then she is the Mother of Mercy. She is the mother of “fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.” (Sir 24:24)…

If the Mother of Emmanual ought to be the first of creatures and sanctity and beauty; if it became her to be free of all sin from the very first, and from the moment she received her first grace to begin to merit more; and if such was her beginning, such was her end, her conception immaculate and her death an assumption; if she died, but revived, and is exalted on high: what is befitting in the children of such a mother, but an imitation, in their measure, of her devotion Ocean, her meekness, her simplicity, her modesty, and her sweetness?

Her glories are not only for the sake of her Son, they are for our sakes also. Let us copy her faith, who received God’s message by the angel without a doubt; her patience, who endured Saint Joseph’s surprise without a word; her obedience, who went up to Bethlehem in the winter and bore our Lord in a stable; her meditative spirit, who pondered in her heart what she saw and heard about Him; her fortitude, whose heart the sword went through; her self-surrender, who gave Him up during His ministry and consulted to His death…

 She will comfort us in our discouragement, solace us in our fatigues, raise us after our falls, reward us for our successes. She will show us her Son, our God and are all…what will bring us to our self, to peace and to health, but the cool breath of the Immaculate and the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon? It is the boast of the Catholic religion, that it has the gift of making the heart chaste; and why is this, but that it gives us Jesus Christ for our food, and Mary for a nursing mother?  Go to her for the royal heart of innocence. She has a beautiful gift of God, which outshines the fascinations of a bad world, and which no one ever saw in sincerity and was disappointed. She is the personal type and representative image of that spiritual life and renovation and grace without which no one shall see God. 

Saint John Henry Newman (Waiting for Christ)

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