Tag Archives: littleness

Day 34 – Total Consecration

Day 34 – Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary

After 33 days of preparation, we are ready to make, or renew our consecration to Jesus through Mary. Saint Louis de Montfort has several encouragements for how to live this day. His recommendations are outlined concisely in his book True Devotion to Mary and repeated in various places on the internet such as here, where you can also find some practices to follow after making the Consecration. The most important recommendation to follow is regarding the Sacraments: there is no better preparation than a humble and sincere Sacramental Confession and a devout participation in the Holy Eucharist including Sacramental Communion. If it is not possible, for some reason, to receive the Sacraments, at least make a sincere act of contrition and a spiritual Communion.

The text for the Consecration can also be found at the link above or a more modern translation can be found here. It is beneficial to write out the Consecration for the sake of investing more love and attention in the words and solemnizing this important moment of prayer. Typesetting with a word processor and printing out a copy that you can sign is also appropriate.

Finally, we provide a slightly altered version of Saint Louis de Montfort’s Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary that captures all the depth and theological importance while adjusting the language slightly to favor the loving image of being in the womb as opposed to the less palatable image of slavery. As expressed in the Introduction at the beginning of our journey, there is no greater “slavery” than being in the womb. A baby in the womb is totally helpless with no will other than the will of the Mother. A baby in the womb is totally dependent on the Mother. And yet there are none of the negative connotations about being in the womb as compared with the many distortions that are found with “slavery.” We recognize that slavery is also a biblical concept and it is not problematic theologically, but especially in light of our American history with slavery, it can be distracting from the essence of Consecration which is about love and trust and carries none of the risks or ambiguity of the term slavery.

One other adjustment in the prayer of Total Consecration is more corrective. Though certainly well-intended by Saint Louis de Montfort, the notion that Jesus would reject or despise us and the idea that Mary is somehow a better mediator or a more merciful advocate than her Son is contrary to Catholic teaching. Saint Louis de Montfort likely expressed things in this way according to the cultural idioms of his time and to inspire greater trust in our Lady, but his expression is in danger of reinforcing false images of Jesus that could undermine our absolute trust in His Infinite Mercy. For this reason, we adjust that sentence of Saint Louis de Montfort’s formula. We leave it to our readers to decide which formula for Consecration they would prefer, but we offer this especially for the sensitive souls who need more comfort and trust than harshness and fear.

Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary

Eternal and incarnate Wisdom, most lovable and adorable Jesus, true God and true man, only Son of the eternal Father and of Mary always Virgin, I adore you profoundly, dwelling in the splendour of your Father from all eternity and in the virginal womb of Mary, your most worthy Mother, at the time of your incarnation.

I thank you for having emptied yourself in assuming the condition of a slave to set me free from the cruel slavery of the evil one. I praise and glorify you for having willingly chosen to obey Mary, your holy Mother, in all things, so that through surrendering all my power and self-determination by dwelling in her womb I may always be your faithful lover.

But I must confess that I have not kept the vows and promises, which I made to you so solemnly at my baptism. I have not fulfilled my obligations, and I do not deserve to be called your child or even your loving slave.

Because I have turned away from you in my sins and I feel so little and poor in my weakness, I do not feel great enough to approach your divine Majesty, but I do feel that I can approach you in your littleness as you dwell in Mary’s womb. That is why I turn to the intercession and the mercy of your holy Mother, whom you yourself have given me to be my meeting place with you. Through her, in her womb, I hope to obtain from you contrition and pardon for my sins, and that Wisdom whom I desire to dwell in me always.

I turn to you, then, Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of God, in whom eternal Wisdom willed to receive the adoration of men and angels. I greet you as Queen of heaven and earth, for all that is under God has been made subject to your sovereignty. I call upon you, the unfailing refuge of sinners, confident in your mercy that has never forsaken anyone. Grant my desire for divine Wisdom and, in support of my petition, accept the promises and the offering of myself, which I now make, conscious of my littleness.

I, __________________, an unfaithful, repentant sinner, renew and ratify today through you my baptismal promises. I renounce forever Satan, his empty promises, and his evil designs, and I give myself completely to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after him for the rest of my life, and to be more faithful to him than I have been till now.

This day, with the whole court of heaven as witness, I choose you, Mary, as my Mother and Queen. I surrender and consecrate myself to you, body and soul, with all that I possess, both spiritual and material, even including the spiritual value of all my actions, past, present, and to come. I give you the full right to dispose of me and all that belongs to me, without any reservations, in whatever way you please, for the greater glory of God in time and throughout eternity. I entrust myself to your loving, maternal care with the same total abandon as the Baby Jesus who chose to dwell in your womb.

Accept, gracious Virgin, this little offering of myself, to honor and imitate the obedience, which eternal Wisdom willingly chose to have towards you, his Mother. I wish to acknowledge the authority which both of you have over this pitiful sinner. By it I wish also to thank God for the privileges bestowed on you by the Blessed Trinity. I solemnly declare that for the future I will try to honor and obey you in all things as an infant in your womb. O admirable Mother, present me to your dear Son as His little twin in your womb, so that he who redeemed me through you, will now receive me through you.

Mother of mercy, grant me the favour of obtaining the true Wisdom of God, and so make me one of those whom you love, teach and guide, whom you nourish and protect as your own infant in your womb.

Virgin most faithful, make me in everything so committed a disciple, imitator, and twin infant of Jesus, your Son, incarnate Wisdom, that I may become, through your intercession and example, fully mature with the fullness which Jesus possessed on earth, and with the fullness of his glory in heaven. Amen.

Knowledge of Jesus Christ – Introduction and Day 27

Introduction to the Week of Knowledge of Jesus Christ

The ultimate culmination of Marian consecration according to the model of Saint Louis de Montfort is really consecration to Jesus Christ. It is a total consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary. For this reason our journey of preparation concludes with a week focused on Jesus Christ. He is, after all, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is our Savior and Lord. Saint Louis de Montfort simply intuited that a sweet and easy path to total consecration to Jesus Christ would be through Mary. As we have already been meditating, that total consecration happens particularly through the womb of Mary. That is where the God-man was formed and so that is where the “man-gods” can be formed. Jesus Christ is God by nature, but He makes us a sharer in His divinity, i.e. “God” by grace. That process of divinization is gradual and the mold is the womb of Mary. So we enter into the womb of Mary not simply out of love for Mary, but also in order to be transformed into Christ her Son.

As we have focused on throughout this preparation, a major obstacle for us is the disordered thoughts and desires of original sin, which fundamentally tempt us to try to become god without God. We seek control and self-sufficiency. We want to depend on God only insofar as it moves us to a point that we no longer need to depend on Him. We do the same with others. We are resistant to entering into truly interdependent relationships that are committed and eternal. Because of the wounds of broken trust, we always keep escape routes open in case things do not work out. Total consecration to Jesus Christ is a decision to close the escape routes in our relationship with God. It is a total consecration, involving our whole mind, heart, body and soul. It is a radical decision to enter irrevocably into a love relationship with Him starting in this moment and including all future moments as well, in time and in eternity.

We make this total consecration through Mary and as we place ourselves in her womb, we let ourselves develop the qualities of Jesus Christ her Son. We need to develop especially the counter-cultural qualities that reverse the pattern of original sin. These are qualities of trust and dependency on God. We develop this trust through prayer and we develop it also through our interdependent relationships with others. Interdependency with others is part of the life of Jesus. He placed His life in the hands of others, starting with Mary and Joseph and extending to His Apostles and disciples. He placed His life so radically in their hands that He gave them power to take His life away, and even when they betrayed Him, He never took away His trust and love. These are the heights we are called to.

In this Week of Knowledge of Jesus Christ, we focus on the way that Jesus became poor, little, weak and dependent. We focus on His powerlessness in His earthly life and His dependency on others and we focus on His ongoing powerlessness in the Eucharist and the dependency and trust that He still gives to us in our response to His Eucharistic Presence. We also focus on the illumination He brings us in the Resurrection and ultimately the way He made Himself subject to death. After each day’s meditation we pray a Litany of Powerlessness, focusing on the way that Jesus who always had the power of God truly emptied Himself and subjected Himself to our human limitations, becoming powerless like us. We pray that we might lovingly embrace His powerlessness and find all the power we need through our trust in God. We pray also a litany of Jesus living in the womb of Mary, deepening our reflection on how He “consecrated” Himself to Mary in this way, allowing Himself to be formed in her womb. Thirdly, we meditate, through Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Prayer Before Communion, on the humility of Jesus in His Eucharistic Presence. If it is possible, it would be an excellent final preparation to attend Mass each day this week and offer that Prayer of Saint Thomas before Communion in the context of the Mass. And lastly we continue our prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary. Let us also ask the Divine Artisan, the Holy Spirit to form us and lead us deeper in our journey throughout this week.

Day 27 – Jesus is little, near and real

From the Book of the Prophet of Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house which you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things are mine,
says the Lord.
But this is the man to whom I will look,
he that is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at my word. (Is 66:1-2)

From Pope Francis’s Homily in Czestochowa, July 28, 2016:

God saves us, then by making himself little, near and real. First God makes himself little. The Lord, who is “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29), especially loves the little ones, to whom the kingdom of God is revealed (Mt 11:25); they are great in his eyes and he looks to them (cf. Is 66:2). He especially loves them because they are opposed to the “pride of life” that belongs to the world (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). The little ones speak his own language, that of the humble love that brings freedom. So he calls the simple and receptive to be his spokespersons; he entrusts to them the revelation of his name and the secrets of his heart. Our minds turn to so many sons and daughters of your own people, like the martyrs made the defenseless power of the Gospel shine forth, like those ordinary yet remarkable people who bore witness to the Lord’s love amid great trials, and those meek and powerful heralds of mercy who were Saint John Paul II and Saint Faustina. Through these “channels” of his love, the Lord has granted priceless gifts to the whole Church and to all mankind. It is significant that this anniversary of the baptism of your people exactly coincides with the Jubilee of mercy.

Then too, God is near, his kingdom is at hand (cf. Mk 1:15). The Lord does not want to be feared like a powerful and aloof sovereign. He does not want to remain on his throne in heaven or in history books, but loves to come down to our everyday affairs, to walk with us. As we think of the gift of a millennium so filled with faith, we do well before all else to thank God for having walked with your people, having taken you by the hand, as a father takes the hand of his child, and accompanied you in so many situations. That is what we too, in the Church, are constantly called to do: to listen, to get involved and be neighbours, sharing in people’s joys and struggles, so that the Gospel can spread every more consistently and fruitfully: radiating goodness through the transparency of our lives.

Finally, God is real. Today’s readings make it clear that everything about God’s way of acting is real and concrete. Divine wisdom “is like a master worker” and “plays” (cf. Prov 8:30). The Word becomes flesh, is born of a mother, is born under the law (cf. Gal4:4), has friends and goes to a party. The eternal is communicated by spending time with people and in concrete situations. Your own history, shaped by the Gospel, the Cross and fidelity to the Church, has seen the contagious power of a genuine faith, passed down from family to family, from fathers to sons and above all from mothers and grandmothers, whom we need so much to thank. In particular, you have been able to touch with your hand the real and provident tenderness of the Mother of all, whom I have come here as a pilgrim to venerate and whom we have acclaimed in the Psalm as the “great pride of our nation” (Jud15:9).

Reflection:

“The little ones speak his own language…” and we can imagine how twin babies communicate in such a simple way in the womb or how a baby in the womb communicates so simply with his mother. The language of love is always simple—gestures of tenderness, embraces, a mother feeding her baby with her body, a mother holding her baby in her arms. This is the first language that Jesus spoke—a language of touch, of food, of kisses and embraces. And it is the last language that He and we speak in our last moments of life. Likewise, if we let ourselves be little, we can feel the nearness of Jesus who draws close to our weakness to bring the tender touch of the Father and the realness of Jesus who does not settle for ideas, but turns them into gestures of love. All this happens when we allow ourselves to be little and enfolded in the love of Mary’s womb.

 

Prayers:

Litany of the Powerlessness of Jesus

Litany of Christ Living in the Womb of Mary

Prayer of St Thomas Aquinas before Holy Communion

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Prayers – Knowledge of Jesus Christ

Litany of Powerlessness
-Franciscan Sisters, TOR

A proud and self-reliant man rightly fears to undertake anything, but a humble man becomes all the braver as he realizes his own powerlessness; all the bolder as he sees his own weakness, for all his confidence is in God, who delights to reveal his almighty power in our infirmity and his mercy in our misery. ~St. Francis de Sales

Through your choosing to do nothing on your own, but only what you see your Father doing, (Jn 5:19)
Jesus, Lord of Lords, save us.

Through your choice to become a tiny embryo enclosed in the womb of your mother Mary unable to even breathe on your own,
Jesus, Creator of the Universe, save us.

By your submission to the limitations of time when you exist in eternity
Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, save us.

Through your choice to become the lost sheep sought out by the shepherds who “left the 99” on the night of your birth,
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, save us.

Through your need to be nourished at your Mother’s breast when you are “a table laden with abundance”
Jesus, Eucharistic Feast, save us.

Through your defencelessness during the flight into Egypt, when you had to rely on Joseph’s protection,
Jesus, our Deliverer, save us.

By the dependence of your childhood in the home of Mary and Joseph, when you needed their time, attention and love,
Jesus, our Provider, save us.

By your obedience to Mary and Joseph when you have dominion over the universe,
Jesus, Ruler of All Nations, save us.

Through your refusal to turn “stones into bread” when you were famished after 40 days in the desert, though you later multiplied the loaves for your hungry disciples,
Jesus, Bread of Life, save us.

Through your desperate request to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to save you from the sufferings that you anticipated,
Jesus, our Savior, save us.

For surrendering yourself to the judgment of Pontius Pilate,
Jesus, our Just Judge, save us.

Through your choice to be identified as a criminal and a blasphemer, causing the high priest to tear his robe,
Jesus, our Great High Priest, save us.

Through your silence, “opening not your mouth”(Is 53:7) in defense, as you were accused unjustly,
Jesus, The Word , save us.

By not resisting a crown of thorns, you who crown us with glory and honor (Ps 8:5)
Jesus, King of Kings, save us.

Through the weakness you experienced on the way of the cross causing you, through whose strength we can do all things (Phil 4:13), to fall three times to the ground,
Jesus, Our Stronghold, save us.

Through your acceptance of Simon’s help on the Way of the Cross when you carry the whole world on your shoulders
Jesus, Strength of Pilgrims, save us.

Through surrendering yourself to the gibbet of the cross when you have exalted us with great power
Jesus, Enthroned on the Praises of Israel, save us.

Through your refusal to “save yourself” as the crowds jeered at you while you hung upon the cross, yet promising to “save us from the hands of our enemies” (Lk 1:74)
Jesus, Source of Eternal Salvation, save us.

Through your refusal to demand justice and your choice to forgive and make excuses for your friends and enemies who crucified you
Jesus, our Justice, save us.

Through the deep thirst you suffered as you cried out from the cross, when you had miraculously drawn water from a rock to quench the Israelites’ thirst in the desert.
Jesus, Source of Living Water, save us.

Through submitting yourself to the greatest abandonment possible, that of your true Father, yet never leaving the temple of our hearts and promising to be with us until the end of the age,
Jesus, Son of God, save us.

By your entering into our greatest moment of powerlessness: death, and allowing it, for a moment, to appear victorious
Jesus, Author of Life, save us.

Through your raising the only son of the widow of Nain, yet letting your dead body remain in the arms of your widowed mother,
Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, save us.

Through your choice to remain imprisoned in tabernacles throughout the world, yet breaking our chains of sin and death
Jesus, our Freedom, save us.

Let us pray.

Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer,
even though you are all-powerful, you embraced our human powerlessness
throughout your life on earth and you embrace it still in the Eucharist.
You did nothing of your own will, but only that of your Father’s.
Help us, who are intrinsically powerless,
to abandon our illusions of control and self-sufficiency,
and give us the humility to relinquish our own wills and plans
so that like you, Jesus, we will do nothing on our own,
but only the Father’s will,
and by always asking your help,
we may find true freedom and perfect power. Amen

Litany to Jesus Christ living in the womb of Mary

Jesus Christ, knit so wonderfully in the womb of Mary.
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary.
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, uniquely Man from the moment of conception in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, present at Creation, created in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, through Whom the world was made, formed in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Word made flesh, taking on a human body in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, revealed by God the Father, concealed in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, subject to human development in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose precious Blood first flowed through tiny arteries and veins in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, hidden nine months in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Only begotten of the Father, assuming flesh in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, begotten by God, nourished by the substance and blood of Thy Most Holy Mother in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, leaping from eternity into time, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, revealing with His Father and the Holy Spirit all wisdom and knowledge to His Most Holy Mother, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, aware of His role as Redeemer in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Sanctifier of His Precursor from the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Eternal Word, Divine Child, embraced by the Father, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, raising His Mother to the heights of sanctification, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, everlasting delight of Heaven, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, manifesting His Incarnation to His Holy Mother, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, adored and contemplated by His Mother in the sanctuary of the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, before Whom the Angels prostrated themselves, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, in Whom the very Angels beheld the humanity of the Infant God and the union of the two natures of the Word in the virginal womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, our Protector and Savior, asleep in the inviolable womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose Holy Limbs first budded in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose Sacred Heart first began beating in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose Godhead the world cannot contain, weighing only a few grams in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose Divine Immensity, once measuring only tenths of an inch in the womb of Mary
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Whose Divine Grasp outreaches the universe, cradled in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Sacrificial Lamb, docile Infant in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Who was to suffer the agony and passion of death, accepting the human capacity for pain and grief, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, foretelling His Eucharist Presence, in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Lamb of God, in the womb of Mary,
Spare us, O Lord.
Jesus, Holy Innocent in the womb of Mary,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Jesus, Son of God and Messiah in the womb of Mary,
Have mercy on us, O Lord.

Prayer Before Communion by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Almighty and Eternal God, behold I come to the sacrament of Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. As one sick I come to the Physician of life; unclean, to the Fountain of mercy; blind, to the Light of eternal splendor; poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Therefore, I beg of You, through Your infinite mercy and generosity, heal my weakness, wash my uncleanness, give light to my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I thus receive the Bread of Angels, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, with such reverence and humility, contrition and devotion, purity and faith, purpose and intention, as shall aid my soul’s salvation.
Grant, I beg of You, that I may receive not only the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord, but also its full grace and power. Give me the grace, most merciful God, to receive the Body of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, in such a manner that I may deserve to be intimately united with His mystical Body and to be numbered among His members. Most loving Father, grant that I may behold for all eternity face to face Your beloved Son, whom now, on my pilgrimage, I am about to receive under the sacramental veil, who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Almighty God, Heavenly Father,
who have placed me, by Baptism, in the womb of the Virgin Mary
beneath her Immaculate Heart
to be together with your Son
and ever more conformed to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit,
grant that I may whole-heartedly embrace my dependence on you
as I place all my trust in my Mother Mary.
May I never scorn my weakness which your Son chose to share with me,
but may I always be grateful to be little and helpless,
knowing that without you I can do nothing.
Veiled with her beneath the protective care of Saint Joseph her spouse,
may I find in her a refuge against every danger
and in her womb a hiding place invisible to the ancient foe.
May I know that I am loved perfectly like Jesus by Joseph and Mary,
those parents, who, receiving everything from You,
will always provide for all of my needs.
Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Day 24 – Knowledge of Mary

Day 24 – Mary and the Church

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John:

[S]tanding by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” (John 19:25-28)

From Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium #285-286):

On the cross, when Jesus endured in his own flesh the dramatic encounter of the sin of the world and God’s mercy, he could feel at his feet the consoling presence of his mother and his friend. At that crucial moment, before fully accomplishing the work which his Father had entrusted to him, Jesus said to Mary: “Woman, here is your son”. Then he said to his beloved friend: “Here is your mother” (Jn 19:26-27). These words of the dying Jesus are not chiefly the expression of his devotion and concern for his mother; rather, they are a revelatory formula which manifests the mystery of a special saving mission. Jesus left us his mother to be our mother. Only after doing so did Jesus know that “all was now finished”(Jn 19:28). At the foot of the cross, at the supreme hour of the new creation, Christ led us to Mary. He brought us to her because he did not want us to journey without a mother, and our people read in this maternal image all the mysteries of the Gospel. The Lord did not want to leave the Church without this icon of womanhood. Mary, who brought him into the world with great faith, also accompanies “the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev 12:17). The close connection between Mary, the Church and each member of the faithful, based on the fact that each in his or her own way brings forth Christ, has been beautifully expressed by Blessed Isaac of Stella: “In the inspired Scriptures, what is said in a universal sense of the virgin mother, the Church, is understood in an individual sense of the Virgin Mary… In a way, every Christian is also believed to be a bride of God’s word, a mother of Christ, his daughter and sister, at once virginal and fruitful… Christ dwelt for nine months in the tabernacle of Mary’s womb. He dwells until the end of the ages in the tabernacle of the Church’s faith. He will dwell forever in the knowledge and love of each faithful soul”. (Isaac of Stella, Sermo 51: PL 194, 1863, 1865.)

Mary was able to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an abundance of love. She is the handmaid of the Father who sings his praises. She is the friend who is ever concerned that wine not be lacking in our lives. She is the woman whose heart was pierced by a sword and who understands all our pain…. As she did with Juan Diego, Mary offers [us] maternal comfort and love, and whispers in [our] ear: “Let your heart not be troubled… Am I not here, who am your Mother?” (Nican Mopohua, 118-119.)

Reflection:

After Jesus gave us His Mother to be our Mother, the Gospel says that He knew all was finished. Mary is able to turn the stable of our hearts into a home for Jesus, no matter how poor we feel we are. He knew that we needed a Mother to make the journey of Christian faith. In Mary we have a Mother and in the Church we have Mother. As Blessed Isaac of Stella taught us, what we can say about Mary, we can say about the Church. In one of the Church’s sacramentals of healing, the priest prays for the one who “ad Ecclesiae sinum recurrit,” (seeks refuge in the womb of the Church). The womb of Mary is the womb of the Church and that is the place of true liberation and healing. Through Marian consecration we come to see our relationship with the Church as being in the womb of our Mother and we discover the consolation and transformation that come from being so rooted in grace and surrounded by prayer.

Prayer:

Litany of the Holy Spirit or Veni Sancte Spiritus

Rosary (or at least one decade) followed by the Litany of Loreto

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Day 22 – Knowledge of Mary

Day 22 – The weak are formed into Christ

A Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians:

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. (Eph 4:11-16)

St Louis de Montfort wrote in The Secret of Mary:

Mary has received from God a special dominion over souls, in order to nourish them and to make them grow up in God. Saint Augustine even says, that all the predestinate are in the womb of Mary, and that they are not born, until the good Mother brings them forth into life eternal. Consequently, as the child draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives it to it in proportion to its weakness, so in like manner do the predestinate draw all their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary. …

Mary is called by Saint Augustine, and indeed is the living mould of God, forma Dei, that is to say, it is in her alone, that the God-Man was naturally formed without losing any feature, so to speak, of His Godhead; and it is also in her alone that man can be properly, and in a life-like way, formed into God, so far as human nature is capable of this by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Now, a sculptor may make a statue or likeness after nature in two ways: 1. out of some hard and shapeless material, by making use of his skill, his strength, his knowledge, and good instruments; 2. he may cast it in a mould. The first manner is long and difficult, and subject to many accidents: it often happens that a mere blow of the hammer or chisel, awkwardly given, is enough to spoil the whole work. The second manner is quick, easy, and gentle, without trouble or expense, provided the mould be perfect, and a good natural likeness, and the material used offer no resistance to the hand.

Mary is the great mould of God, made by the Holy Ghost, in order to form a God-Man by the Hypostatic Union, and a Man-God by grace. In this mould, no feature of the Godhead is wanting; whoever is cast in it, and allows himself to be freely handled, receives therein all the features of Jesus Christ, who is True God. And this is done in a gentle manner, and in proportion to his human weakness, without much agony or labour; in a sure manner, without fear of illusion, for the devil has never had, and never will have, access to Mary; and lastly, in a holy and spotless manner, without the shadow of the least stain of sin. Oh! what a difference there is between a soul formed in Jesus Christ by the ordinary ways, that is to say, by trusting, like the sculptor, to mere natural skill and ingenuity, and a soul thoroughly tractable, really detached, and well molten, which, without in any way leaning upon itself, suffers itself to be cast in Mary, and to be handled by the Holy Ghost! How many stains, how many defects, how much darkness, how many illusions, how much of what is merely natural, and human, is there in the first soul; and how pure, how divine, and like to Jesus Christ, is the second!

Reflection:

As the Fathers of the Church affirmed, God became man that man might become God. This is already an unbelievable gift, but we might be suspicious that this only applies to some men and women, perhaps only to the strong, to those who are nearly saints already. Our Catholic Christian tradition denounces that deception, however, and affirms that Christ came so that all might be saved and that all might grow up into Christ. Saint Louis de Montfort elaborates on this sound doctrine and encourages us to see that weakness makes it even easier for us, because we are supernaturally drawn to the safest place, the womb of Mary. Furthermore, that womb is the most perfect place to be formed into Christ, because that is precisely the place that Christ was formed. When we feel our weakness, our littleness, our poverty and we are tempted to give up or get discouraged, we can find refuge and consolation in the womb of Mary. Then we can remember what Saint Louis teaches us, that that is the best place to be formed perfectly into saints, into Christ Himself.

Prayer:

Litany of the Holy Spirit or Veni Sancte Spiritus

Rosary (or at least one decade) followed by the Litany of Loreto

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Knowledge of Self Day 16 – Beloved sinners

Day 16 – Beloved sinners; a dignified embarrassment

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:

There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry. (Luke 15:11-24)

From Pope Francis’s Retreat Meditation on June 2, 2016:

Let us think for a moment about the “embarrassed dignity” of this prodigal yet beloved son. If we can serenely keep our heart balanced between those two extremes – dignity and embarrassment – without letting go of either of them, perhaps we can feel how the heart of our Father beats with love for us. It was a heart beating with worry, as he went up onto the roof to look out. What was he looking at? The possible return of his son… In that moment, in that place where dignity and embarrassment exist side by side, we can perceive how our Father’s heart beats. We can imagine that mercy wells up in it like blood. He goes out to seek us sinners. He draws us to himself, purifies us and sends us forth, new and renewed, to every periphery, to bring mercy to all. That blood is the blood of Christ, the blood of the new and eternal covenant of mercy, poured out for us and for all, for the forgiveness of sins. We contemplate that blood by going in and out of his heart and the heart of the Father. That is our sole treasure, the only thing we have to give to the world: the blood that purifies and brings peace to every reality and all people. The blood of the Lord that forgives sins. The blood that is true drink, for it reawakens and revives what was dead from sin.

In our serene prayer, which wavers between embarrassment and dignity, dignity and embarrassment, both together, let us ask for the grace to sense that mercy as giving meaning to our entire life, the grace to feel how the heart of the Father beats as one with our own. It is not enough to think of that grace as something God offers us from time to time, whenever he forgives some big sin of ours, so that then we can go off to do the rest by ourselves, alone. It is not enough. … the important thing is that each of us feel that fruitful tension born of the Lord’s mercy: we are at one and the same time sinners pardoned and sinners restored to dignity. The Lord not only cleanses us, but crowns us, giving us dignity.

Reflection:

Pope Francis wrote earlier in this meditation, “Mercy, seen in feminine terms, is the tender love of a mother who, touched by the frailty of her newborn baby, takes the child into her arms and provides everything it needs to live and grow (rahamim).” More precisely, rahamim is closely related to the Hebrew word for womb rehem. Learning to balance embarrassment and dignity is another way of describing how we remain in the womb of Mary. We are very small in her womb and we feel how underdeveloped and incapable we are. At the same time, we are in the Seat of Wisdom and we share a home with the Almighty Lord, Jesus Christ as we are being formed into His likeness. We are embarrassed by our weakness, but dignified in the nobility God freely gives us—wrapped in his royal robe and wearing the ring of his royal dignity.

Prayer:

Ave Maris Stella or Sub Turm Praesidium

Dominican Litany of Humility

Litany of the Holy Spirit

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Knowledge of Self Day 14 – Remaining Little

Day 14 – Remaining little

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4)

When Saint Therese of Lisieux was asked on her death bed what it means to remain little, she replied:

“It is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from her father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, and not to be set on making our [own] living. Even among the poor, they give the child what is necessary, but as soon as she grows up, her father no longer wants to feed her and says: ‘Work now, you can take care of yourself.’

“It was so as not to hear this that I never wanted to grow up, feeling that I was incapable of making my [own] living, the eternal life of heaven.

“To be little is not attributing to oneself the virtues that one practices, believing oneself capable of anything, but recognizing that God places this treasure in the hands of His little child to be used when necessary; but it remains always God’s treasure. Finally, it is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.” (St. Therese of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, pp. 138-139)

Reflection:

How do I view myself? Am I impressed with my virtues, accomplishes, skills, gifts, degrees, salary, moral perfection, knowledge, eloquence of speech? Do I recognize that everything I have I have received, even my own life, my own being? Do I get discouraged over my faults? Do I beat myself up when I fail or do I cast myself into the hands of God, trusting in the infinite love of my Heavenly Father? Do I allow my failures to remind me that I am simply a little child in Mary’s womb, still developing with a long way to go, but trusting I will grow into a saint in God’s time?

Prayer:

Ave Maris Stella or Sub Turm Praesidium

Dominican Litany of Humility

Litany of the Holy Spirit

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Emptying ourselves Day 6 – The sign of a child

Day 6 – The sign of a child

Pope Benedict XVI’s Midnight Mass Homily 2006:

We have just heard in the Gospel the message given by the angels to the shepherds during that Holy Night, a message which the Church now proclaims to us: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:11-12). Nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother’s care; a child born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfils the promise of the prophet Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder” (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the child lying in the manger.

God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing from us other than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him.

Reflection:

Let us meditate on the little God who comes to us and welcome him into our arms and our hearts and love him.

We learn to see Him better as we become more like Him. When we choose to become little and we accept our weakness we draw closer to the Baby Jesus in the womb of Mary. As we love Him, we enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will and we enter into the heart and into the womb of Mary, to whom He first entrusted His life. We find ourselves pressed up against Him like two twins in the womb, experiencing His paradise in that place of perfect love.

Prayers:

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Ave Maris Stella or Sub Tuum Praesidium

Litany of Penance or Radiating Christ

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary

Emptying ourselves Day 5 – God reveals himself to the childlike

Day 5 – God reveals himself to the childlike

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew:

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:25-27)

From Benedict XVI’s homily to the International Theological Commission (Dec. 1, 2009):

We have heard that our Lord praises the Father because he concealed the great mystery of the Son the Trinitarian mystery, the Christological mystery from the wise and the learned, from those who did not recognize him. Instead he revealed it to children, the nèpioi, to those who are not learned, who are not very cultured. It was to them that this great mystery was revealed.

…[I]n our time there have also been “little ones” who have understood this mystery. Let us think of St Bernadette Soubirous; of St Thérèse of Lisieux, with her new interpretation of the Bible that is “non-scientific” but goes to the heart of Sacred Scripture; of the saints and blessed of our time: St Josephine Bakhita, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta and St Damien de Veuster. We could list so many!

But from all this the question arises: “Why should this be so?”. Is Christianity the religion of the foolish, of people with no culture or who are uneducated? Is faith extinguished where reason is kindled? How can this be explained? Perhaps we should take another look at history. What Jesus said, what can be noted in all the centuries, is true. Nevertheless, there is a “type” of lowly person who is also learned. Our Lady stood beneath the Cross, the humble handmaid of the Lord and the great woman illumined by God. And John was there too, a fisherman from the Sea of Galilee. He is the John whom the Church was rightly to call “the theologian”, for he was really able to see the mystery of God and proclaim it: eagled-eyed he entered into the inaccessible light of the divine mystery. So it was too that after his Resurrection, the Lord, on the road to Damascus, touches the heart of Saul, one of those learned people who cannot see. He himself, in his First Letter to Timothy, writes that he was “acting ignorantly” at that time, despite his knowledge. But the Risen One touches him: he is blinded. Yet at the same time, he truly gains sight; he begins to see. The great scholar becomes a “little one” and for this very reason perceives the folly of God as wisdom, a wisdom far greater than all human wisdom.

We could continue to interpret the holy story in this way. Just one more observation. These erudite terms, sofòi and sinetòi, in the First Reading are used in a different way. Here sofia and sìnesis are gifts of the Holy Spirit which descend upon the Messiah, upon Christ. What does this mean? It turns out that there is a dual use of reason and a dual way of being either wise or little. …

Then there is the other way of using reason, of being wise—that of the man who recognizes who he is; he recognizes the proper measure and greatness of God, opening himself in humility to the newness of God’s action. It is in this way, precisely by accepting his own smallness, making himself little as he really is, that he arrives at the truth. Thus reason too can express all its possibilities; it is not extinguished but rather grows and becomes greater. Sofìa and sìnesis in this context do not exclude one from the mystery that is real communion with the Lord, in whom reside wisdom and knowledge and their truth.

Let us now pray that the Lord will give us true humility. May he give us the grace of being little in order to be truly wise; may he illumine us, enable us to see his mystery in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection:

Do I see my own littleness? Do I see the greatness of God? Let us pray for true humility and the grace of littleness.

Mary’s womb is the Seat of Wisdom where we can be both little and wise. It is where we learn the Wisdom of Jesus who saved us by becoming small and weak. When we place ourselves in Mary’s womb and do all of our reasoning from that perspective, we take ourselves less seriously, empty out our intellectual pride and learn to delight in the wonders of God. We can think of the Baby Jesus in Mary’s lap as He reaches out to discover the world from that place of perfect love and safety.

Prayers:

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Ave Maris Stella or Sub Tuum Praesidium

Litany of Penance or Radiating Christ

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary