Ave Maria!

“Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me…Behold, I come to do your will.” These are the words of Christ, who humbled Himself and leapt down from Heaven into the Virgin’s womb, into the Virgin Earth of Our Lady. The only offering that could redeem us came through Mary, and, unlike Abraham, there was no substitute for the sacrifice of Her Son. Fr. Peter here speaks wonderfully on the glories of Our Lady, noting among other things that besides God the Father, the only one who can understand God the Son is His Mother.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Fr. Peter: The Superior Sacrifice first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

This vignette of the apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine Laboure on the occasion of her request for the Medal was produced by the Franciscans of the Immaculate in conjunction with Susan Mackewich of Gizmo Productions and Dave Wroe. We include this segment on the happy occasion of the start of Air Maria and on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Archangel St. Michael to Our Lady resulting in the blessed Incarnation of the Son of God.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – St. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Short Video Series #6 – Fr. Peter speaks at Steubenville on St. Maximilian and his teaching on the Holy Spirit and the Immaculate Conception (80min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Fr. Peter Fehlner speaks at Steubenville University in 2007, at the invitation of Dr. Scott Hahn. The talk is on his book St. Maximilian Kolbe: Martyr of Charity – Pneumatolgist where he outlines the teaching of St. Maximilian on the the Holy Spirit and His relation to the Immaculate Conception. He covers St. Maximilian’s methodology, his teaching on the Holy Spirit, how it can resolve, revive and update theology on a sound basis and some of the objections raised against this Saint. He gives a brief discussion on the three titles of Mary, Complement of the Trinity, Spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Immaculate Conception, and how these titles apply to the Holy Spirit and Our Lady. The talk is followed by a question and answer session. Come listen to this fascinating talk on this sublime subject.

Notes are available: https://airmaria.s3.amazonaws.com/shrtv/shrtv0006text.html

Fr. Peter’s books:

St. Maximilian Kolbe: Martyr of Charity – Pneumatolgist – https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/products/maximilian-kolbe-pneumatologist

Roman Conferences of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe: https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/products/roman-conferences-of-st-maximilian-m-kolbe

The Triple Way: https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/products/triple-way

Other Books Mentioned in the Talk:

Virgo Ecclesia Facta – The Virgin Made Church: https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/products/virgo-ecclesia-facta-the-virgin-made-church

Dr. Mark Miravalle’s article “Coredemptrix and Immaculate Conception”:  https://www.foromariano.es/images/Libros/PDF/2%20Inmaculada/Mark%20Miravalle-Coredemption%20and%20Immaculate%20Conception.pdf

Also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IWQwtZmy4ok

The post Video – Fr. Peter Fehlner: St. Maximilian on the Holy Spirit first appeared on AirMaria.com.

ST. MARIA GORETTI (1890-1902) FEAST DAY IS JULY 6TH

At the tender age of 12 this pious and hardworking young girl was attacked by a 19 year old man who wished to rape her. She fought him off, telling him this was a sin and he could go to hell. He began to stab her, and would stab her 14 times. She would survive for 2 days in the hospital and died after having forgiven him and asking God to forgive him. Holding a Crucifix and a medal of Our Lady, the holy young girl gave her soul to God.

The man was convicted of this terrible crime and spent years in prison. For many years unrepentant, he later saw a vision of Maria that led to his conversion. He would be there in person when she was canonized in Rome in 1950. The girl’s mother was also there and following Maria’s example, she also forgave her killer.

Maria was not quite 12 when she died to preserve her purity. How we need her prayers for our young people today!

St. Maria Goretti Novena Prayer

Intercede and pray for us to the Father,
so that we may consent to his holy will for us.

You who are God?s friend and see him face to face obtain the grace we are seeking from you?

We thank you Marietta, for the love of God and neighbor that you have sown in our hearts.

Amen.

The post No Age Requirements for Holiness: St. Maria Goretti first appeared on AirMaria.com.

THE HOLY NAME OF MARY

Our salvation begins when an archangel speaks the name of Mary. To be Christian is to carry on that Annunciation unceasingly. Saint Louis de Montfort wrote that “the salvation of each individual is bound up with the Hail Mary.” This prayer that names the holy name of the Mother of God brought to a dry and barren world .the Fruit of Life. It will cause the Word of God to take root in the soul and bring forth Jesus. The holy name of Mary bears such power because of the unique bond between Mother and Son. ?When God sent his Son born of a woman, he instituted a once and for all order of salvation in which the union of Mother and Child stands at the center” (Romanus Cessario). To accept the divine privilege of speaking the name of Mary is to participate in that saving union.

The post Whenever I say Hail Mary… first appeared on AirMaria.com.

In commemoration of the 700th Anniversary of his death, we are happy to present this new, ground-breaking book on the Mariology of Blessed John Duns Scotus, providing a well referenced, concise presentation of his Mariology in clear English.

Fr. Rosini has, perhaps for the first time, provided a complete, well-balanced exposition of Scotus on Our Lady, with all the many inter-connections between the mystery of Mary and the whole of theology, illustrating plainly how the subtle resolution of the most complex of theological questions was not something achieved prior to any consideration of Mary, but exactly to the contrary: by meditating ?in the spirit of prayer and devotion? (St. Francis of Assisi) on the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin in the mystery of Christ and the Church (Lumen Gentium, ch. 8, title).

PROD ID: AIB-MBD030, 313 pp., perfect bound.
$18.00

Go to Marymediatrix.com for more information and to order copies.

The post FiNews – New Book: Mariology of Scotus first appeared on AirMaria.com.

On January 21st the Church celebrates the memorial of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr. She came from a noble Roman family and was about thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom. She was tortured and beheaded. Her name is included in the Roman Canon.

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When I received the Sacrament of Confirmation at the age of 10, I chose St. Agnes as my patron. How I wanted to be like her!  Yes, to be pure and brave and holy and to be a martyr for the love of God. I wanted to be like her then and I wish to be like her now. In these intervening years, I do not know that I have come any closer to this ideal but it is one I still place before my heart.  St. Agnes, pray for us!  Pray for our young people who see so much impurity in the world.  Help them, and help all of us, to love God as you did, even unto death.

(Sr. Joseph-Mary Maximilian  fti)

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St.  Ambrose wrote the following concerning St. Agnes in a work called ‘De Virginibus’:

She is said to have suffered martyrdom when twelve years old. The more hateful was the cruelty, which spared not so tender an age, the greater in truth was the power of faith which found evidence even in that age. Was there room for a wound in that small body? And she who had no room for the blow of the steel had that wherewith to conquer the steel. But maidens of that age are unable to bear even the angry looks of parents, and are wont to cry at the pricks of a needle as though they were wounds. She was fearless under the cruel hands of the executioners, she was unmoved by the heavy weight of the creaking chains, offering her whole body to the sword of the raging soldier, as yet ignorant of death, but ready for it. Or if she were unwillingly hurried to the altars, she was ready to stretch forth her hands to Christ at the sacrificial fires, and at the sacrilegous altars themselves, to make the sign of the Lord the Conqueror,34-3171–> or again to place her neck and both her hands in the iron bands, but no band could enclose such slender limbs.

A new kind of martyrdom!  Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth. She would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned with plaited hair, but with Christ. All wept, she alone was without a tear. All wondered that she was so readily prodigal of her life, which she had not yet enjoyed, and now gave up as though she had gone through it. Every one was astounded that there was now one to bear witness to the Godhead, who as yet could not, because of her age, dispose of herself. And she brought it to pass that she should be believed concerning God whose evidence concerning man would not be accepted. For that which is beyond nature is from the Author of nature.

What threats the executioner used to make her fear him, what allurements to persuade her, how many desired that she would come to them in marriage! But she answered: “–>It would be an injury to my spouse to look on any one as likely to please me. He who chose me first for Himself shall receive me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this body perish which can be loved by eyes which I would not.”–> She stood, she prayed, she bent down her neck. You could see the executioner tremble, as though he himself had been condemned, and his right hand shake, his face grow pale, as he feared the peril of another, while the maiden feared not for her own. You have then in one victim a twofold martyrdom, of modesty and of religion. She both remained a virgin and she obtained martyrdom.

We do not know for sure exactly when St. Agnes was martyred. It had been thought that it was at the time of the persecuation of Diocletian about 304, but it may have been some years before that, perhaps in the persecuatino of Decius.

The body of the virgin martyr was placed in a separate sepulchre on the Via Nomentana, and around her tomb there grew up a larger catacomb that bore her name. The original slab which covered her remains, with the inscriptions Agne sanctissima, is probably the same one which is now preserved in the Museum at Naples. During the reign of Constantine, through the efforts of his daughter Constantina, a basilica was erected over the grave of St. Agnes, which was later entirely remodelled by Pope Honorius (625-638), and has since remained unaltered. In the apse is a mosaic showing the martyr amid flames, with a sword at her feet. A beautiful relief of the saint is found on a marble slab that dates from the fourth century and was originally a part of the altar of her church.

Since the Middle Ages St. Agnes has been represented with a lamb, the symbol of her virginal innocence. On her feast two lambs are solemnly blessed, and from their wool are made the palliums sent by the Pope to archbishops.

A Legend of St. Agnes:

Agnes is one of the most glorious saints in the calendar of the Roman Church. The greatest Church Fathers vie with one another in sounding her praise and glory. St. Jerome writes: “All nations, especially their Christian communities, praise in word and writing the life of St. Agnes. She triumphed over her tender age as well as over the merciless tyrant. To the crown of spotless innocence she added the glory of martyrdom.”

Our saint’s name should be traced to the Greek hagne – the pure, rather than to the Latin agna – lamb. But the Latin derivation prevailed in the early Church. The reason may have been that eight days after her death Agnes appeared to her parents with a train of virgins, and a lamb at her side. St. Augustine knew both derivations. “Agnes”, he writes, “means ‘lamb’ in Latin, but in Greek it denotes ‘the pure one’. The Latin interpretation occasioned the yearly blessing of the St. Agnes lambs; it takes place on this day in the Church of which she is patron, and the wool is used in weaving the palliums worn by archbishops and, through privilege, by some bishops. In the church built by the Emperor Constantine over the saint’s grave, Pope Gregory the Great preached a number of homilies. Reliable details concerning the life of St. Agnes are very few. The oldest material occurs in St. Ambrose’s De Virginibus.

From such liturgical sources we may construct the following “life of St. Agnes”. One day when Agnes, then thirteen years old, was returning home from school, she happened to meet a son of the city prefect. At once he became passionately attracted to her and tried to win her by precious gifts. Agnes repelled him, saying: “Away from me, food of death, for I have already found another lover. I love Christ, into whose chamber I shall enter, whose Mother is a virgin, whose Father knows not woman, whose music and melody are sweet to my ears. When I love Him, I remain chaste; when I touch Him, I remain pure; when I possess Him, I remain a virgin”. I am betrothed to Him whom the angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire. For Him alone I keep my troth, to Him I surrender with all my heart”.

Incensed by her rebuff, the young man denounced Agnes to his father, the city prefect. When he threatened her with commitment to a house of ill fame, Agnes replied: “At my side I have a protector of my body, an angel of the Lord”.  When Agnes entered the house of shame, she found an angel of the Lord ready to protect her. A light enveloped her and blinded all who tried to approach. Then another judge condemned her to the stake because the pagan priests accused her of sorcery.

 Surrounded by flames she prayed with outstretched arms: “I beseech You, Father almighty, most worthy of awe and adoration. Through Your most holy Son I escaped the threats of the impious tyrant and passed through Satan’s filth with feet unsullied. Behold, I now come to You, whom I have loved, whom I have sought, whom I have always desired.” She gave thanks as follows: “O You, the almighty One, who must be adored, worshipped, feared – I praise You because through Your only begotten Son I have escaped the threats of wicked men and have walked through the filth of sin with feet unsullied. I extol You with my lips, and I desire You with all my heart and strength.”

After the flames died out, she continued: “I praise You, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, because by Your Son the fire around me was extinguished”. And now she longed for union with Christ: “Behold, what I yearned for, I already see; what I hoped for, I already hold in embrace; with Him I am united in heaven whom on earth I loved with all my heart”. Her wish was granted; the judge ordered her beheaded.

Patron: Engaged couples; bodily purity; chastity; Children of Mary; Colegio Capranica of Rome; crops; gardeners; Girl Scouts; girls; rape victims; diocese of Rockville Centre, New York; virgins.

Symbols: Lamb; woman with long hair and a lamb, sometimes with a sword at her throat; woman with a dove which holds a ring in its beak; woman with a lamb at her side.

The post Her Wrists were too Small for the Chains first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria Meditations

Answer Quickly, O Virgin!

Mary’s Consent

When Our Lady stood up, a queenly child, and uttered her fiat to the Angel of God, her words began to make Christ’s voice. Those first words of consent had already spoken Christ’s last words of consent; her “1 commit myself to you, do whatever you like with me” were already spoken by Christ in her; they were one and the same with his: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”.

At that moment, when Our Lady received the love of the Holy Spirit as the wedded love of her soul, she also received her dead Son in her arms. The trust which accepted the utter sweetness of the Infant Jesus between her own hands, looking at her with her own eyes, accepted the stiff, unresponsive corpse that her hands embalmed. This was her Son, but more, even more, God’s Son. She trusted God, she understood on earth that which many mothers will only understand in heaven; she was able to see her boy killed, lying there bruised from head to foot, wounded and dead, and to believe the Father’s cry: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

God asks for extreme courage in love; the Bride of the Spirit must respond with strength like his own strength. Our Lady did this. How much easier it would have been for her, had she been asked in that moment in time to withdraw from the common life, to tear up her heart by its roots and, renouncing all “earthly joys,” bring forth Christ in cloistered security. How much easier for her if she had had at least a guarantee for the safety of the precious burden, Christ, in her. But she was consenting not only to bear her own child, Christ, but to bear Christ into the world in all men, in all lives, in all times; not only in secluded lives, protected lives, the lives of holy people, but into the lives of those haunted by worry, by poverty, by debts, by fears and temptations, subject to chance, to accident, to persecution, to the fortunes of war. She was consenting not only to give birth to Christ, not only to give life to him, but to give him death.

Caryll Houselander

THE VIRGIN OF THE INCARNATION

PRESENCE OF GOD – I draw near you, 0 Virgin Mary, with a lively desire to enter into the secret depths of your interior life, so that you may be my light and my model.

MEDITATION

“It seems to me that Our Lady’s .attitude during the months that intervened between the Annunciation and the Nativity is the model for interior souls, for those whom God has chosen to live within, in the depths of the unfathomable abyss” (Elizabeth of the Trinity)

If Mary’s whole life was one of recollection and concen­tration on God, it must have been especially such at the time when, overshadowed by the power of the Most High, the Word became incarnate within her. The Angel Gabriel found Mary in solitude and recollec­tion. The Angel being come in, says the Gospel; the expression “come in,” leads us to believe that Mary was “within” her house. The Angel reveals to her in God’s name what will take place in her. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).

From that moment God made Himself present in Mary in a very special way, present not only by essence, knowledge, and power, as He is in all creatures; present not only by grace as He is in the souls of the just; but, far more, the Word of God was in Mary by ” corporal presence, ” as St. Albert the Great says. Although retaining her humility, Mary was perfectly conscious of the “great things” that were taking place within her; her sublime canticle, the Magnificat, is proof of this. Nevertheless, she kept the great mystery hidden in her soul, hidden even from Joseph, and lived recollected in the intimacy of her spirit, adoring and meditating: she “kept all these words, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

God never gave Himself to any creature more fully than He did to Mary, but no one ever understood better than Mary the grandeur of the divine “Gift”; nor has there ever been a more loving, more faithful guardian and adorer of it. “If you but knew the gift of God!”

There is one created being who knew this gift of God, one who never lost a particle of it … the faithful Virgin, who kept all things in her heart. The Father, inclining toward this creature so beauteous, so unaware of her beauty, decreed that she should be the Mother in time of Him who is His Son in eternity. Then the Spirit of Love, who presides at all the workings of God, came upon this Virgin and she uttered her Fiat! ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to Thy word.’ The greatest of mysteries was accomplished, and through the descent of the Word into her, Mary was forever seized upon and held by God.

In what peace, what recollection, Mary went to and lent herself to everything! How the most commonplace things were divinized by her-for she remained ever in adoration of the Gift of God yet that did not hinder her from spending herself externally when there was question of practicing charity. The Gospel tells us that Mary … went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda … and saluted Elizabeth. Never did the unspeakable vision which she contemplated within herself diminish her exterior charity.

COLLOQUY:

O Mary, I love to contemplate you as you adore in profound recollection the great mystery which is taking place within you. You are the first temple of the Blessed Trinity, the first adorer of the Incarnate Word, the first tabernacle of His sacred humanity.

“O Mary, temple of the Trinity! Mary, you bore the divine fire; Mother of Mercy, from you has blossomed forth the fruit of life, Jesus! O Mother, you are that new plant from which we have the fragrant flower, the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, because in you, fertile land, was sown this Word. O Mary, fiery chariot, you bore a hidden fire which was concealed beneath the ashes of your humanity.

If I look at you, O Mary, I see that the hand of the Holy Spirit has inscribed the Trinity in you, by forming within you the Incarnate Word, the only Son of God. a Mary, I see this Word given to you, within you” (St. Catherine of Siena).

Fr.Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene  OCD

St. Louis de Montfort’s Prayer to Mary

Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father. Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son. Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, my Mother, my loving Mistress, my powerful sovereign. Hail, my joy, my glory, my heart and my soul. Thou art all mine by mercy, and I am thine by justice. But I am not yet sufficiently thine. I now give myself wholly to thee without keeping anything back for myself or others. If thou seest anything in me which does not belong to thee, I beseech thee to take it and make thyself the absolute Mistress of all that is mine.

Destroy in me all that may displease God; root it up and bring it to nought. Place and cultivate in me everything that is pleasing to thee. May the light of thy faith dispel the darkness of my mind. May thy profound humility take the place of my pride; may thy sublime contemplation check the distractions of my wandering imagination.

May the continuous sight of God fill my memory with His Presence; may the burning love of thy heart inflame the lukewarmness of mine.

May thy virtues take the place of my sins; may thy merits be my only adornment in the sight of God and make up for all that is wanting in me. Finally, dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may have no other spirit but thine to know Jesus, and His Divine Will; that I may have no other soul but thinke to praise and glorify God; that I may have no other heart but thine to love God with a love as pure and ardent as thine.

I do not ask thee for visions, revelations, sensible devotions, or spiritual pleasures. It is thy privilege to see God clearly, it is thy privilege to enjoy heavenly bliss; it is thy privilege to triumph gloriously in heaven at the right hand of thy Son and to hold absolute sway over angels, men, and demons. It is thy privilege to dispose of all the gifts of God, just as thou willest. Such, O heavenly Mary, the ‘best part’, which the Lord has given thee, and which shall never be taken away from thee–and this thought fills my heart with joy.

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that which was thine, to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures, to suffer joyfully without human consolation, to die continually to myself without respite, and to work zealously and unselfishly for thee until death, as the humblest of thy servants. The only grace I beg thee, for me, is that every moment of the day, and every moment of my life, I may say, “Amen, so be it, to all that thou art doing in heaven. Amen, so be it, to all thou didst do while on earth. Amen, so be it, to all thou art doing in my soul,” so that thou alone mayest fully glorify Jesus in me for time and eternity. Amen.

The Annunciation: The Whole World Awaits Mary’s Response

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin! Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open: arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

Totus Tuus

Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt, O Virgo, super omnia benedicta.

Translates as: I am all yours, and all that is mine is yours, O Virgin, blessed above all.

The post The Annunciation: Heaven and Earth Await Mary’s Response first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The post Our Duties to Our Blessed Mother first appeared on AirMaria.com.

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Three months after the Angel’s message-at the end of June,

The Woman who is bright as the sun and fair as the moon

Feels the Heart of her Infant throb beneath hers.

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In the womb of the Virgin Immaculate a new world begins,

The Child who is older than time enters time for our sins,

And with human breathing the First Mover stirs.

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Mary, heavy with child conceived by the Holy Ghost,

Is far fiom the sight of men with her heavenly Host,

Like the dove of the Canticle in the crannied wall.

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She moves not, she speaks not a word, she adores-no more;

Her life is within, her God is within to adore,

Her work and her son, her child, her all.

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The world is at peace, the temple of Janus is shut,

The scepter of David is gone and the prophets are mute,

Lo! darker than Hades, a dawn without light.

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For Satan holds sway and the world gives him incense and gold,

But into his kingdom God comes like a thief, and behold

A daughter of Eve puts the serpent to flight.

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The promised Messiah is come, for whom the world prays,

Men know not the good tidings yet, but, far from their gaze,

The Mother is circled by Cherubim bright.

Paul Claudel

The post One Minute Meditation first appeared on AirMaria.com.