Messenger:       THE MIGHTY MEDICINE

                       THE POWER IS IN THE EUCHARIST

                        WE NEED TO GIVE OUR HEARTS
                            TO JESUS AND MARY

                        Mary ought to be given
                            her rightful place.
                        Mary ought to be honored.
                        Mary is Mother of the Church.
                        Mary is our spiritual Mother.

                        We ought to honor Our
                            Mother Mary.  

March 25, 2002 message continues

Messenger:             Click on the book so
                                    you can see it and
                                    how it can help the priests and the
                                    Church and the world now.  click on
                                If the Bishops pray
                                    as Apostles of the Eucharistic
                                    Heart of Jesus it can help to
                                    do what Mary asked for at Fatima.
                                    Mary said Bishops should consecrate their
                                    dioceses to her heart and
                                    Jesus' Sacred Heart.

Messenger:      Please help us get funds for

                            1) Building payment April 1  $10,000
                            2) Old printing bill  $15,000
                            3) Mass Book II
                            4) Prayer Cards   1) Prayer Before Holy Sacrifice of the
                                                                    Mass

     
                                                        2) Prayer for intimacy with the Lamb

5) Holy Spirit Novena Books                              6) Blue Books

March 25, 2002 message continues

Messenger:     Please come to Florida April 5, 6, and 7 see end of message

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation

Excerpt from March 24, 2002

Messenger:      From the brochure as Fr Carter directed.

                                4) Making reparation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

end of excerpt from March 24, 2002

by Father Carter, S.J.
  

March 25, 2002 message continues

Messenger:  We need to consecrate our hearts to Our 
                    Lady and Our Lord.

            from Tell My People

               by Father Carter, S.J.
    

Excerpt from June 2, 2001

    How great was the act of love, God gave to this world, when He gave Himself and died on the cross. He gives Himself to us this day in the Holy Eucharist.

    The greatest commandment is that we must love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole being. This is a commandment. If we are to enter heaven, we must follow the commandments. They are commands given by God for us to follow.

    The greatest act we can do on this earth is an act of loving God. The reason for our existence is to love God. In the sacrament of His greatest love, He gives Himself to us. This is an act of love on His part. We are called to respond by giving ourselves in love to Him.

    This is the purpose of the Holy Eucharist: to unite in such oneness with our Holy, Loving God. Our all consuming passion should be that of loving God. How many go to the Eucharist with the sole purpose of giving great love to God? He wants us to love Him. He wants souls to tell Him how much they truly love Him. This is the most intimate act of love when Jesus gives Himself-Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to man. If it is such an act of love, how are we receiving Him in Communion? We should beg God, in this most intimate union with Him, to help us to love Him with greatest love.

    Jesus is a Person. He wants our love. The Holy Spirit wants such intimacy with us. Our Father wants us to love Him. In the Eucharist, we unite with God. In this intimate act of uniting with our beloved God, with Divinity, we must pour out our love to God. We must pour out our heart to the most adorable Heart of Jesus. Jesus is so unjustly treated by many of His beloved souls He loves so much. Let us help make reparation to the Almighty God by loving God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole being in the sacrament of His greatest love. This is the Gift of Himself.

    Think of how it is to love someone and give your all for that person, to pour out your heart to him or her and then be treated with coldness and neglect. It hurts our heart so much more when we deeply love someone to be rejected by that person. Jesus loves us with the deepest love. We cannot fully comprehend this love. Let us love Him with the deepest love. Let us love Mary and her Immaculate Heart. Let us love her as the Mother of God. Let us love her as the virgin who bore the Son of God. May we, in the reception of the Eucharist pour out our love to Him, to this adorable Heart. May we pour out our love to His Holy Mother.

    Mary said at Fatima that Jesus wants His Heart venerated next to the heart of His Mother. Let us love these two Hearts as we receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Then we are so deeply united with God. We see Their two Hearts surrounded with thorns for the injustices against Their Hearts. Let us help make reparation daily as we receive Him in the Eucharist. This is a special time to help make reparation to Their wounded Hearts.

    Let us remember how He poured His love out to us on the cross and how He pours out His love to us now when He gives us Himself in the Eucharist, the Eucharist which contains His Heart of burning love. His Heart was pierced with a lance. Her heart was invisibly pierced with a sword. As the wounds in Their Hearts are deep, so too is Their love so deep.

    He does not want "surface love". He wants hearts filled with deep burning love.

end of December 27, 1995 writing

Excerpt from March 31, 2001

end of excerpt from March 31, 2001

June 2, 2001 message continues

~ Excerpts from Priestly Newsletter on Mary ~

Newsletter January/February 1995

    The Holy Father offers us some very meaningful words on the subject of faithfulness. Faithfulness, of course, is one of the chief characteristics of love: “Virgo fidelis, the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for the world. ‘Quomodo fiet? How shall this be?’, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation.

    “The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The quomodo fiet is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a fiat, ‘Let it be done, I am ready, I accept.’ This is the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’; that there are in God’s plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely…

    “The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one’s life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practices and what one believes; this is consistency…

    “But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm. It is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation.”⁴

---

^NOTES:
4. Pope John Paul II, Inside the Vatican, December, 1994, pp. 29-39.

Newsletter January/February 1995

    Our friendship with Jesus as His priest-companions, our faithfulness to Him because we love Him, very much involves Mary. She, under God, is the Mother of our Christ-life. She cooperates with the Holy Spirit in our ongoing transformation in Christ. Fr. Arthur Calkins, a contemporary Marian scholar, offers us these words on Mary and the priest:

    “If every Christian ought to see himself in the Apostle John, entrusted to Mary as her son or daughter, how much more ought priests to recognize themselves as sons of Mary, as the subjects of a ‘double’ entrustment to her. I say ‘double’, because they are successors of John by a twofold title: as disciples and as priests. This is beautifully drawn out by our Holy Father in his Holy Thursday Letter to Priests of 1988: ‘If John at the foot of the Cross somehow represents every man and woman for whom the motherhood of the Mother of God is spiritually extended, how much more does this concern each of us, who are sacramentally called to the priestly ministry of the Eucharist in the Church!’

    “No doubt there are any number of priests today who would say that such reasoning represents a certain ‘snob appeal’, a ‘clerical culture’ that should have disappeared after the Council. The emphasis now, they would maintain, is on equality: we all share the common priesthood of the faithful and priestly ordination does not make us better than lay people.

    “Surely, it is true that the hierarchical priesthood which is received by the imposition of the bishop’s hands is conferred on the basis of the royal priesthood which all the faithful share. It is also true that of itself priestly ordination does not make one morally better than the laity…

    “But the fact is that the Sacrament of Holy Orders configures the priest more closely to Christ the Eternal Priest to the extent that his soul receives an indelible spiritual character and his very being is transformed in a way that allows him to function in persona Christi, in the very person of Christ, as he celebrates the sacraments and intercedes as a member of and on behalf of the whole Church. Hence this scriptural injunction surely holds true for the priest: ‘When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted’ (Lk 12:48). Saint Thomas Aquinas puts it this way: ‘Those who have been chosen for a superior position through the bestowal of Holy Orders also have been called to a similar height of holiness’ (Summa Theologica, suppl., q. 35, a. 1, ad 3)…

    “Although Jesus had already entrusted every priest to his Mother from the height of the cross and the Pope has done it even hundreds of times, it is still necessary for the priest to do so himself if he would truly experience the power and the protection of the Mother of God in his life as her Divine Son intends it. Priests who have done so know the difference it makes.⁸

---

^NOTES:

8. Fr. Arthur Calkins, Soul Magazine, January-February 1995, p. 30.

end of excerpts Newsletter January/February 1995

Newsletter November/December 1995 

    One of the first things a good mother does is to teach her child to pray. Mary, the best of mothers, the most caring and loving of mothers, has a deep and consistent desire to help us to grow in prayer. One of her favorite forms of prayer is the rosary. She gave a remarkable set of promises regarding the rosary to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan. Included in those promises are the following:

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice; he shall not perish by an unprovided death. If he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.

   November 5, 2001 Mary appears in gold on the window as we pray it on the 5ths

7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces. At the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. ⁽¹²⁾

---

^NOTES:
12. As in The Fatima Crusader, Summer 1992, p. 30.

end of excerpt Newsletter November/December 1995

  

Newsletter January/February 1996

Mother of Our Christ-life

    Mary is the Mother of our Christ-life, this life which flows to us from the bosom of the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II beautifully links Mary's spiritual motherhood toward us with her being Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church, and Model of the Church. "Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as the Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense, Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks: the Church must draw 'from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ.'" ⁽¹⁰⁾

---

^NOTES:
10. Pope John Paul II, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 38.

end of excerpt Newsletter January/February 1996

Newsletter September/October 1996

Mother of Our Christ Life

    Rita Ring writes: "Mary is always desiring to bring forth her children to a greater Christ likeness. It is through Mary that we join in deepest intimacy with Jesus' Heart. Jesus came into this world in the womb of His Mother through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is today, in the womb of Mary, in the heart of Mary, that we are transformed through the Holy Spirit more and more to the likeness of Jesus. Let us go to the heart of our Mother and ask the Holy Spirit to increasingly sanctify us that we may go ever more deeply into the Heart of Jesus, the Heart of endless love. We do not fully comprehend the love of God. We are so limited in our vision. We do not fully know how Jesus' Heart is truly burning and on fire. Do we know what it is to feel love burning in our heart? This is what Jesus felt when He allowed Himself to suffer during His Passion and to die on the cross. His Heart was on fire."⁷

---

^NOTES:
7. Rita Ring, Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, 
    to be published by Shepherds of Christ Publications.

end of excerpt Newsletter September/October 1996

Newsletter November/December 1996

At this Christmas season, these words of Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp., are particularly appropriate:

    "The swaddling bands in which Mary wrapped the Infant afforded but an imperfect shelter against the chilliness of the icy draughts. There is no doubt but that the straw was rough and course in spite of all Mary's efforts to make of it a clean and smooth bed for the tender Infant limbs. The manger, to be sure, was a sorry cradle for a King, and that the august King of heaven and earth. Doubtless, it was all very comfortless, but that is only one aspect of the birth of Jesus in the stable. It was not all wretchedness and misery. In this life of the God-Man loveliness and greatness, obscurity and splendor, weakness and power ever go hand in hand, and it is the splendor and power and greatness that dominate. They are but enhanced by the dark shadows of poverty, isolation and suffering. The shadows of the life of Jesus but serve to throw the splendors into stronger relief. The stable was a wretched abode, but in it was a sanctuary as worthy of God as it is possible for a created thing to be worthy of Him. That sanctuary was Mary's soul. In it the Child-God could nestle to His Heart's content and find delight. He is God and for Him, therefore, spiritual realities are more real than material realities. In His eyes the splendors of His Mother's soul transformed the cavern into an abode of palatial splendour and beauty. The mother love of Mary wrapped the soul and heart of Jesus in a mantle of warmth that was grateful in the extreme. God had never before experienced the like from a human person. Mary lavishes tenderness mingled with adoration on the Child. She ministers to Him the warmth, the light, the comfort, denied by the cavern. Joseph's affection and adoration were a pale but still a true reflex of the love and worship of Mary. It is not easy to satisfy God. The saints, even great ones, find Him exacting in His requirements. Yet here God was satisfied. He could ask no more from the two than they had given. For they had given without niggardliness. They had given all that their hearts and souls were capable of. The hostelry in which the new-born God found shelter was not, after all, such a mean one. It was the greatest and the most beautiful that our earth has ever seen or ever will see. It was not all lowliness and sordidness that surrounded the nativity of the Saviour. Man could not take from Him His greatness, nor could the humble circumstances to which their blindness condemned Him obscure it. He was great, in spite of all that man could say or do or judge and His greatness burst in splendour through the lowly conditions of the Nativity. Trumpets proclaim the birth of princes. Never did earth re-echo to strains comparable to those that announced the birth of the Great Prince of Heaven, Mary's Son. Never was such a radiance diffused through the palaces of kings as flooded the wide spaces in the center of which was the manger. Men may not, but God always does recognize true greatness, and He sets His seal upon it."³

---

^NOTES:
3. Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp., In the Likeness of Christ, Sheed & Ward, pp. 45-46.

Newsletter November/December 1996

    Pope John-Paul II gives us these inspiring words: "Be blessed above all things, Handmaid of the Lord, who obeyed the Divine Call in the fullest way! Be greeted, you who united yourself entirely with your Son's redemptive consecration! Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God on the way of faith, hope and charity! Help us to live with all the truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family in the contemporary world. By entrusting, O Mother, the world, all individuals and all peoples to you, we also entrust to you the very consecration of the world, putting it in your Maternal Heart.

    "O, Immaculate Heart! Help us to overcome the threat of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of men today and, with the incommensurable effects, already weighs upon our contemporary existence and seems to close the way toward the future.

    "Free us from hunger and war! From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, free us! From the sin against the life of man at its dawning, free us! From the hatred and debasement of the children of God, free us! From every kind of injustice, national and international, free us! From the ease treading down God's commandments, free us! From sins against the Holy Spirit, free us! Free us!

    Receive, O Mother of Christ, this cry charged with the sufferings of all mankind! Charged with the suffering of entire societies. Reveal yourself once again, in the story of the world, to be merciful! May this cry halt evil! May it transform consciences!
May the light of hope, reveal itself to all in your Immaculate Heart! Amen".¹⁴

---

^NOTES:
14. Pope John-Paul II, Prayers and Devotions, edited by Bishop Peter Canisuis Johannes van Lierde, O.S.A., Viking, pp. 357-358.

end of excerpts Newsletter November/December 1996

Newsletter January/February 1997

    Fr. René Laurentin, one of the world's foremost Mariologists, offers us the meaningful words concerning Mary: "She was present physically throughout the life of Christ-both by her mother's love and by her commitment to him. It was a communion of faith, of hope and of charity. Mary's presence to her son is a model for us, since, through this mother, God becomes our brother and has given her to us as mother in order to identify us with himself....We are humble children of this mother who has so profoundly adopted us in him....Mary has the mission of aiding the work of our divinization in Jesus Christ. She cooperates with him in the work of God."¹⁴

---

^NOTES:
14. René Laurentin, A Year of Grace With Mary, Veritas Publications, pp. 113-114.

end of excerpt Newsletter January/February 1997

Newsletter May/June 1997

    Pope John Paul II speaks to us movingly concerning the Heart of Christ: "The Heart of the Redeemer enlivens the whole Church and draws men who have opened their hearts 'to the inscrutable wealth' of this unique Heart....

    "I desire in a special way to join spiritually with all those who inspire their human hearts from this Divine Heart. It is a numerous family. Not a few congregations, associations and communities live and develop in the Church, taking their vital energy in a programmed way from the Heart of Christ. This spiritual bond always leads to a great reawakening of apostolic zeal. Adorers of the Divine Heart become people with sensitive consciences. And when it is given to them to have a relationship with the Heart of our Lord and Master, then need also reawakens in them to do reparation for the sins of the world, for the indifference of so many hearts, for their negligence.

    "How necessary these ranks of vigilant hearts are in the Church, so that the love of the Divine Heart shall not remain isolated and without response! In these ranks, special mention deserves to be made of all those who offer up their sufferings as living victims in union with the Heart of Christ pierced on the cross. Transformed in that way by love, human suffering becomes a particular leaven of Christ's saving work in the Church...

    "The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us, above all, of those moments when this Heart was 'pierced by the lance,' and, thereby, opened in a visible manner to man and the world. By reciting the litany and venerating the Divine Heart in general, we learn the mystery of the Redemption in all its divine and human profundity."

    And the Pope also speaks to us about the heart of Mary: "The Immaculate Heart of Mary was open to the word, 'Woman, there is your son.' It went to meet spiritually the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier's lance. The heart of Mary was opened by the same love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the world, offering up himself on the cross, even to that lance stroke from the soldier.

    "Consecrating the world to the Immaculate heart of Mary means approaching the same Source of Life, through the Mother's Intercession, that life which flowed forth from Golgatha, the source which gushes out ceaselessly with redemption and grace. Reparation for the sins of the world is continually being accomplished in it. It is ceaselessly the font of new life and holiness.
"Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning under the Cross of the Son. More: it means consecration of this world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, by bringing the world back to the very source of its Redemption. Redemption is always greater than man's sin and 'the sin of the world.' The power of Redemption infinitely surpasses the whole range of evil in man and in the world.

    "The Heart of the Mother is aware of it, more than anyone in the whole cosmos, visible and invisible. This is why she calls. She does not call only to conversion; she also calls upon us to let ourselves be helped by her, the Mother, to return to the source of the Redemption."⁴

---

^NOTES:

4. Pope John Paul II. Prayers and Devotions, edited by Bishop Peter Canuis Johannes Van Lierde, Viking, pp. 449-451.

end of excerpt Newsletter May/June 1997

Newsletter July/August 1997

    Bernard, saint and doctor of the Church, and one greatly devoted to Mary, offers us these inspiring words:

    "If you will not be submerged by tempests, do not turn away your eyes from the splendor of this star. If the storms of temptation arise, if you crash against the rocks of tribulation, look to the star, call upon Mary. If you are tossed about on the waves of pride, of ambition, of slander, of hostility, look to the star, call upon Mary. If wrath or avarice or the enticements of the flesh upset the boat of your mind, look to Mary. If you are disturbed by the immensity of your crimes' if you begin to be swallowed up by the abyss of depression and despair, think of Mary! In danger, in anxieties, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name not leave your lips, nor your heart, and that you may receive the help of her prayer, do not cease to follow the example of her conduct' If she holds you, you will not fall, if she protects you, you need not fear."¹³

---

^NOTES:

13. St. Bernard, as in Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, Christian Classics, Vol I., p. 237.

end of excerpt Newsletter July/August 1997

Newsletter September/October 1997

end of excerpt Newsletter September/October 1997

Newsletter 1998 Issue 1

    Here are words of Fr. Angelo Amato, S.D.B., professor of theology at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome: "The maternal presence of Mary in our life is not a Catholic invention or an exaggeration of the popular piety, but a biblical reality found in the heart of the Trinitarian mystery of salvation…Mary is the creature chosen by God to become the Mother of His beloved Son. The presence of Mary in the mystery of Christ and of the Church is not therefore optional or cosmetic, but theological and soteriological…

    "For this reason among Protestants, too, there exist today representative figures who are trying to recover the biblical figure of Mary, as well as the ecclesial tradition condensed, for example, in the four Marian dogmas. We mention, among others, authors like Henry Chavannes, John Macquarry with his recent book, ‘Mary for all Christians’, Ulrich Wickert…

    "And today, more than ever, is valid the affirmation made by John H. Newman (1801-1890) in 1865: ‘Exactly those nations and lands that got rid of the devotion to the Mother of God, have lost faith in Christ’s divinity; while those lands which were faithful to Mary, have conserved Orthodoxy’."¹⁰

---

^NOTES:

10. Fr. Angelo Amato, SDB, as in Alliance of the Two Hearts, Two Hearts Media Organization, pp. 141-142.

Newsletter 1998 Issue 1

The Eucharist

    In his homily at the World Youth Day Mass in Paris, Pope John Paul II put forth these words on the Eucharist: "‘Rabbi, where are you staying?’ Each day the Church responds: Christ is present in the eucharist, in the sacrament of his death and resurrection. In and through the eucharist you acknowledge the dwelling place of the living God in human history. For the eucharist is the sacrament of the love which conquers death. It is the sacrament of the covenant, pure gift of love for the reconciliation of all humanity. It is the gift of the real presence of Jesus the redeemer…Thanks to the eucharist, constantly renewed among all the peoples of the world, Christ continues to build his church: He brings us together in praise and thanksgiving for salvation, in the communion which only infinite love can forge. Our worldwide gathering now takes on its fullest meaning, through the celebration of the Mass. For Christ is now answering your own question and the questions of all those who seek the living God. He answers by offering an invitation: This is my body, take it and eat. To the Father he entrusts his supreme desire: that all those whom he loves may be one in the same communion."¹¹

    The Holy Father offers us further words on the Eucharist. Speaking of Mary, he tells us: "Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian people at the Sacred Banquet—the liturgical celebration of the mystery of the Redemption—at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin Mary, becomes present.

    "The piety of the Christian people has always rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this is the fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and the East, in the traditions of the Religious Families, in the modern movements of spirituality, including those for youth, and in the pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist."¹²

---

^NOTES:

11. Pope John Paul II, "Homily", as in Origins, 
        CNS Documentary Service, Sep. 4, 1997, Vol 27, No. 12, p. 190.
12. Pope John Paul II, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 44.

Newsletter 1998 Issue 1

Thoughts from a Spiritual Journal

    Here are certain reflections from a spiritual journal. Notice how Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Mary enter into the person’s experience:

    "Well, the night was black, as black as black could be and the cold pierced my bones. I felt its chill go through my entire body and I wanted to scream and it happened—He gave me an outpouring of His life in my soul and my darkness was truly turned to light, another light, not the light of the eyes, a light of knowing God, the joy of beholding His heavenly embrace, the great illumination of another mystery. Oh such sweet gifts He gives when, in an instant, I pray my rosary and the Holy Spirit fills my heart with lights and the mystery lights up and I know, I just know, and I experience a great insight into God.

    "This is the reason for this letter, for I laid on my bed and I wanted to cry and I was deeply afraid for the demons pressed in as rocks poking at me and hurting my precious skin. I laid in bed and I went into the womb of my Mother Mary and I asked for the Holy Spirit to flood me with His light and it came: death-resurrection, darkness-light, sorrow-joy, suffering and pain, but oh, the joy of His light, the joy of His glory. It is in the death there is the resurrection.
  

   

    "So, I walk the road to Calvary. I mount the cross and I die. I offer sacrifice and in the morning when the night is done I see the glory of the resurrection. I experience His joy in my heart.

    "So I went to bed and went into the womb of my Mother Mary and the Holy Spirit flooded me with light and I united deeply to my precious Jesus on the cross. I know Him and His love. I reminisced on all the places of deepest intimacy I had shared with Him and my heart burned. I wanted Him to be so close to me, and I loved Him so much. I cried out, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ In that moment I knew Him. He had removed my bonds and set me free. I then knew Jesus as never before.

    "I felt my great love for God the Father. I have been experiencing my littleness as a child and knowing my Father, seeing myself very little and knowing my Father and wanting as a little child to please Him. Then tonight I realized more His Fatherly love. I saw myself depending on Him, needing Him, crying to Him, loving Him and then I realized His might and love coming to me.

    "So I knew in an instant. He gives you a light and you know. I experienced the Trinity. My heart was consumed. I was engulfed in the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I stopped to be in the embrace, wanting it to never end, for in this embrace I felt peace, a peace I had not felt before, so different from the days that had proceeded this moment, the days of suffering and trial.

    "I mounted the cross. I felt the nails press deeply into my hands and feet. I felt the crown of thorns on my head. I said to Him, "Oh, why, my God, if you love me, do you make it so hard?

    "And then I pictured Jesus on the cross. I saw His mouth with blood running from the corner of it. I saw the body of one close to death. I saw His wounds, blistery and red, pouring out His precious blood. I saw the hollowness of His cheeks and the exhaustion of one ready to expire in death. I saw the anguishing Lord Who came to show us His way. His way is death and resurrection. His way is pain and glory. His way is the way to eternal life!"

end of excerpts Newsletter 1998 Issue 1

Newsletter 1998 Issue 4

• Speaking of Eucharistic participation, Vatican II tells us: "The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, through a proper appreciation of the rites and prayers they should participate knowingly, devoutly, and actively. They should be instructed by God's word and be refreshed at the table of the Lord's body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn to offer themselves too. Through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever closer union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all."⁴
  
      The above words remind us that the universal priesthood gives the faithful a real priestly power of offering the Eucharistic sacrifice. This capacity of offering, of course, differs from that power of offering which the priest receives through ordination. Nevertheless, all of us do participate in the priesthood and victimhood of Jesus, who is chief priest and victim in the Mass.

• Pope John-Paul II, in one of his writings prior to his becoming Pope, points out that the truth of our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is central to the entire teaching of Vatican II: "...the attitude which derives from sharing in the priesthood of Christ is seen as one which contains in a special way all the richness of faith, both as regards content and as regards subjective commitment. The Conciliary teaching, which lays so much emphasis on this attitude, also shows us its proper place in the inner life of every Christian and the life of every Christian community, in which all the wealth of faith must be sought and developed. It can in a sense be said that the doctrine concerning Christ's priesthood and man's share in it is at the very centre of the teaching of Vatican II and contains in a certain manner all that the Council wished to say about the Church, mankind and the world.
  
      "Only against the background of the truth concerning Christ's priesthood, in which all the People of God share, does the Council delineate the mutual 'subordination' between the priesthood of all the faithful and the hierarchical priesthood."⁵

• The following words of Fr. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., are closely connected with the above. His words emphasize the great importance regarding personal holiness and one's participation in the Mass. "Mass, insomuch as it is Christ's offering, is not only always acceptable to God, but is of infinite value as well. But, inasmuch as it is your offering and mine, and that of every other member of the Mystical Body...we can limit the effectiveness of God's great Act of Love; we finite beings can set bounds to the veritable flood of God-life made possible by the Infinite Son of the Infinite Father."⁶

• Yes, the effectiveness of each Mass, which makes the sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally present, depends in part on the holiness of the entire Church offering it with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit, including the holiness of the individual priest offering the Mass and the holiness of his participating congregation.
  
      Fr. Maurice de la Taille, S.J., formerly professor of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and a universally recognized authority on the Mass, points out the great importance of personal holiness in the Church relative to the effectiveness of the Eucharistic sacrifice: "It is, then, of greatest importance that there should be in the Church many holy, many very holy persons. Devout people, men and woman, who should be urged by every means to higher sanctity, so that through them the value of our Masses may be increased and the tireless voice of the Blood of Christ, crying from the earth, may ring with greater clearness and insistence in the ears of God. His Blood cries on the altars of the Church, but, since it cries through us, it follows that the warmer the heart, the purer the lips, the more clearly will its cry be heard at the Throne of God. Would you wish to know why for so many years after the first Pentecost the Gospel was so marvelously propagated; why there was so much sanctity amongst the Christian people; why such purity in heart and mind, such charity, the sum of all perfections? You will find the answer when you recall that in those times the Mother of God was still on earth giving her precious aid in all the Masses celebrated by the Church, and you will cease to wonder that never since has there been such expansion of Christianity, and such spiritual progress."⁷
  
      If all, then, have a responsibility to grow in holiness in order to render the Mass more efficacious, the priest has a special duty to do so. His goal must always be to grow in holiness--to grow in union with Christ the priest, this Christ Who leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit with Mary at our side.

• Let us continue to build upon the thought of Fr. de la Taille. He states that the Masses which took place while Our Blessed Mother was still upon earth were extraordinarily effective because of her great holiness.
  
      We can, therefore, make our own participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice much more effective by striving to develop within us those dispositions of Mary which she brought to her own participation in the Eucharist sacrifice while she was upon earth.
  
      Let us ask Mary to help us participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice as perfectly as possible. She is the perfect model for us in the putting on of Christ crucified and Christ glorified. Mary has been given great insight into how one is to participate more and more in Christ's paschal mystery of death and resurrection, this paschal mystery which becomes sacramentally present upon our altars at the Eucharistic sacrifice.
    

September 7, 2000	September 7, 2000

    Mary is the Sorrowful Mother who has cried. She is also the one who is totally wrapped in victory as she stands above the altar of sacrifice. Mary is the Lady of Victory, the Lady of Peace and Joy, the Lady Clothed with the Sun. Through her Immaculate Heart she brings the crying children of Eve into greater light so that grace will flow in great torrents from the altars of sacrifice.

    Let us pray that we ourselves will contribute more and more in helping the waters of salvation flow more copiously from our altars to the thirsty earth.

    As we have indicated, the fruitfulness of each Mass depends greatly on the holiness of the priest offering the Eucharistic sacrifice. An aspect of the priest's holiness is his coming to the altar with that presence of being which allows him to have the greatest appreciation of the awesome event which is to take place. The priest attains the proper presence at the Mass proportionate to his oneness with Christ. In turn, his oneness with Jesus is in proportion to his union with Mary. For it is Mary's God-given role to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in producing the deepening of the image of Jesus within us. Consequently, the more one is united to Mary, the more the Holy Spirit, Whose spouse Mary is, forms us in Christ.

    Besides having a duty to grow in appreciation of the greatness of the Mass himself, the priest has a great privilege and responsibility to teach the faithful how to participate more fruitfully in the Mass. Many seem to come to the Mass knowing little regarding the greatness of the event about to occur. Many seem to come to the altar lacking in that proper knowledge and proper overall disposition which would allow for a proper participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

    In childlike trust, let us ask the Father to grant us through Christ and in the Holy Spirit with the assistance of Mary our Mother, ever greater knowledge and love of the Eucharist: "At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Mt 11:25-27)

---

^NOTES:
4. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", American Press Edition, No. 48.
5. John Paul II, Sources of Renewal: The Implementation of Vatican II, translated by P.S. Falla, Harper & Row, p. 225.
6. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., This Is Love, Bruce, p. 106.
7. Maurice de la Taille, S.J., The Mystery of Faith: Book 2, "The Sacrifice of the Church", translated by Joseph Carroll and P.J. Dalton, Sheed & Ward, p. 240.

  

---

  

Newsletter 1998 Issue 4

    J. Patrick Gaffney, S.M.M., writes of St. Louis de Montfort: "Montfort's intense devotion to Mary is clearly Christocentric. So strongly does the saint insist upon the point that he forcefully teaches that if devotion to Mary alienated us from Jesus it would have to be rejected as a diabolical temptation...With Mary we enter into a more intense and more immediate union with the Incarnate Wisdom. To wrench Mary from salvation history and therefore from Christian life is, for Montfort, to reject the plan of salvation as decreed by the Father.

    "The total, lived-out acceptance of the reality of our faith is what Montfort calls 'Consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom.' This loving, free surrender to God's plan renews us in the Spirit so that we may 'carry out great things for God and for the salvation of souls' (cf. The True Devotion, 214)...and all must be done in the 'milieu' of Mary's maternal influence so that we may, like her, be temples of the Holy Spirit and thereby renew the face of the earth."¹⁷

    And here are words from St. Louis himself: "The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus."¹⁸

---

^NOTES:

17. God Alone, The Collected Works of St. Luis de Montfort, p. xv.
18. St. Luis de Montfort, True Devotion as in God Alone, op. cit., p. 327.Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Co.

end of excerpts Newsletter 1998 Issue 4

Newsletter 1998 Issue 5

    I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. (Jn 10:11-15¹)

    Yes, the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for us. As He was near death, an awesome episode in the work of redemption took place: Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, "Woman, this is your son". Then to the disciple he said, "This is your mother." And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home." (Jn 19:25-27).

    Speaking of Mary, Vatican II tells us: "In an utterly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace." ²

    Mary is the Mother of Jesus. She is also our Mother. The above words of Scripture and of the Second Vatican Council attest to this.

    Yes, Jesus has given us Mary as our spiritual Mother. As He hung on the cross, Jesus told John to look upon Mary as his Mother, this John who represented all of us. In His moment of deepest anguish and suffering, Jesus was thinking of us. As the undescribable physical pain racked His body from head to toe, as the unfathomable spiritual anguish penetrated to the depths of His magnificent Heart, Jesus was thinking of us. If we allow this scene to penetrate into our hearts, if we take the time to contemplate the depth of Jesus' and Mary's love for us as their Hearts were pierced with grief, we are truly overwhelmed with the magnificent greatness, sorrow, and tenderness of the scene.

    The fact that Mary is our Mother, the fact that she has such a powerful role to play in our salvation in no way detracts from the mediatorship of Christ. Vatican II states: "The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. For all the saving influences of the Blessed Virgin on men originate, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. They flow forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rest on His mediation, depend entirely on it, and draw all their power from it. In no way do they impede the immediate union of the faithful with Christ. Rather, they foster this union." ³

    In her loving, maternal role, Mary cooperates with the Holy Spirit in forming Christ in us. Pope John Paul II tells us: "The Church knows that 'all the saving influences of the Blessed Virgin on mankind originate... from the divine pleasure...' This saving influence is sustained by the Holy Spirit, Who, just as He overshadowed the Virgin Mary when he began in her the divine motherhood, in a similar way constantly sustains her solicitude for the brothers and sisters of her Son." ⁴

    Mary, our Mother is ever with us, guiding us, teaching us, caring for us, protecting us, loving us. With her maternal assistance we go to the Father through and with Christ in the Holy Spirit.

    Mary nourishes our growth in Christ with a very tender and specialized love for each of us. She regards each of us as a precious, unique individual. John Paul II again speaks to us: "Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother. Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the child." ⁵

    The Holy Father then applies these ideas to Mary and us: "It can be said that motherhood 'in the order of grace' preserves the analogy with what 'in the order of nature' characterizes the union between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier to understand why in Christ's testament on Golgotha His Mother's new motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man." ⁶

    This is the awesome and consoling truth-you and I are very precious to Mary. She shows us her Heart as a symbol of her life of love, including her most special, unique love for each of us individually. Yes, she loves each of us much more than we can ever fathom. It is our great privilege and responsibility to love her in return. She asks for this love, she asks for our trust, she asks us to come to her maternal and Immaculate Heart, so that she can lead us ever closer to the Heart of her Son, Jesus.

    Are we sorrowful, anxious, troubled? Let us go to Mary our Mother and ask her to console us. Let us ask her for the grace to handle our sorrow, our anxieties, our troubles properly-according to God's will. In this way our suffering will bring us closer to Christ as it simultaneously allows us to contribute to the ongoing Christianization of the world.

    Are we especially joyful, happy, basking in the glow of a goal successfully accomplished? Let us go to Mary and ask her to help us handle our joy, our happiness, our success as God intends. Let us petition her not to allow our joy to make us forgetful of God, our God Who is the source of all true joy, success and happiness.

    Yes, Mary invites us to come to her in all circumstances-whether it be in joy or sorrow, success or failure, laughter or tears. Mary wants us to share in her maternal wisdom so that we may understand how to use our various experiences to come closer to God in Christ. Sharing our lives with Mary in this fashion, and on a consistent basis, requires that we love her, that we trust her, that we surrender ourselves to her maternal love.

    Help us, Mother Mary, to probe ever more deeply into the depths of your love for us. Help us to realize more and more that to be loved by you is to experience a sweetness, a warmth, a tenderness, a serenity, a security, which makes us cry out, "O Mother, how good and loving you are!"

---

^NOTES:

1. Scriptural quotations are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday & Co.
2. The Documents of Vatican II, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church", America Press edition, no. 61
3. Ibid., No. 45.
4. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 38.
5. Ibid., No. 45.
6. Ibid., No. 45.

end of excerpt Newsletter 1998 Issue 5

Newsletter 1999 Issue 1

    Fr. René Laurentin, one of the world's foremost Mariologists, speaks to us concerning Mary's presence to Christ: "Mary is present throughout the life of Christ...She introduced him into the human family, unfolded his humanity, accompanied him throughout his hidden life until he reached the age of thirty. She became involved in his ministry by suggesting to him the sign of Cana (John 2:1-22). During the three years of separation, her spiritual communion deepened further. She was one with him physically and morally during his suffering and death on Calvary, through compassion with his passion. She prepared for and accompanied, through her prayer, the birth of the Church (Acts 1:14). Finally, she rejoined her son in the glory of the Assumption."

    Laurentin also speaks about the presence of Mary in the life of the Church: "Mary's discreet and universal presence continues throughout the life of the Church: visible and invisible, in history, its churches, its religious art. The call for her intercession appears throughout the dogmatic history of the Councils and the various complex struggles within the Church which, during the Carolingian era, inspired the famous anthiphon: 'You have conquered all heresies throughout the world.'

    "She was also the inspiration for the initiatives and victories of the Church. Many feasts were instituted in order to commemorate her efficacious assistance. From the earliest centuries, the most ancient churches were dedicated to her since she was the first temple of God and remains the model of all others. Mary, model of the Church, is also the model of the churches where the eucharistic presence of the Lord is renewed and where prayer takes place continuously."

    Present to the universal Church, Mary is also present to the individual Christian. Laurentin quotes from the writings of numerous holy men and women who give witness concerning this personal presence of Mary. There follow some of Laurentin's quotations regarding this testimony.

    He refers to St. Anthony of Padua: "And St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church, whose canonization broke all records, taking place less than two years after his death, concluded one of his principal homilies with this prayer: 'We beseech you, Our Lady, our hope, tossed about as we are by the storm. You, Star of the Sea, bright ray, direct us towards safe harbour, assist our arrival by the protection of your presence. (Sermon 3 in Praise of the Virgin, op. 1, p 163.)"

    Laurentin also refers to Jean Jacques Olier, founder of the Sulpicians, and one of the most prominent figures of the French School of Spirituality. He quotes Olier: "One Saturday Mary became interiorly present to my soul...She recalled to me that her dear son had told me that he would only live in me through her...as if she were a sacrament by which he wished to communicate his life to me. (Brettonvillers, L'esprit de Monsieur Olier, t. 1, 1, 9 pp. 396-397)."

    And it is not surprising that Laurentin, in his discussion of Mary's presence to us, refers to St. Louis de Montfort, one of the greatest apostles of devotion to Mary. Laurentin says: "Let us not pick any further from the petals of the dossier (Laurentin refers to the list of citations he has made concerning Mary's presence to us) which stretches over the centuries and which seems to justify de Montfort's prediction in his Treatise on True Devotion (no 46): 'At the end of the world, the greatest saints will be those who are most devoted to praying to the most Holy Virgin, and who have had her always present... in order... to have her as their powerful helper in their time of need '' " ¹²

    Let us remind ourselves, regarding St. Louis de Montfort, that his Marian devotion is deeply Christocentric. J. Patrick Gaffney, S. S. M., tells us: "Montfort's intense devotion to Mary is clearly Christocentric. So strongly does the saint insist upon the point that he forcefully teaches that if devotion to Mary alienated us from Jesus it would have to be rejected as a diabolical temptation...with Mary we enter into a more intense and more immediate union with the Incarnate Wisdom. To wrench Mary from salvation history and therefore from Christian life is, for Montfort, to reject the plan of salvation as decreed by the Father." ¹³

---

^NOTES:

12. Fr. René Laurentin, A Year of Grace with Mary, translated by Monsignor Michael J. Wrenn, Veritas, pp l13-l19.
13. God Alone, The Collected Works of St. Louis de Montfort, Montfort Publication, p. xv.

end of excerpt Newsletter 1999 Issue 1

Newsletter 1999 Issue 1

end of excerpt Newsletter 1999 Issue 1

Newsletter 1999 Issue 4

    Do you not see the words as if they are almost written across the sky, "Thy will be done"? See her underneath the cross as she holds Him across her knees. His arms lay limp. And the words go across the sky again, "Not My will, but Thine be done". For He did the Father’s will to His death on the cross. He is placed in the tomb as she cries outside. Behold the most sorrowful Mother. Within her Heart is an understanding of the divine mysteries that far exceeds that of any human person. In her sorrow, in her tears, she knew so deeply the great gift that God sent--Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, the Savior of the world. She knew that her Son had to suffer these things in order to enter into the glory of His resurrection.

    And on the day of His resurrection, Mary’s tears were now tears of joy. The victory of her Son has now been accomplished, and the victory will last forever. And on that first Easter morning Mary also knew that all of us, her children, are called to share in her Son’s victory-- His resurrection--now, and especially in eternal life. She is ever pleading with us that with the help of God’s grace we will do all that is necessary to share as fully as possible in the life of Jesus’ resurrection--here and hereafter. She wants Emmanuel to be with us to the greatest degree possible, now and in eternal life.

          

Newsletter 1999 Issue 4

    St. Louis de Montfort has been one of the greatest apostles regarding devotion to Mary. Here are some of his thoughts:

    "Just as in natural and bodily generation there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a father who is God and a mother who is Mary.

    "... God the Son wishes to form himself, and, in a manner of speaking, become incarnate every day in his members through his dear Mother.

    "... Moreover, Jesus is still as much as ever the fruit of Mary, as heaven and earth repeat thousands of times a day, ‘Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus’. It is therefore certain that Jesus is the fruit and gift of Mary for every single man who possesses him, just as truly as he is for all mankind. Consequently, if any of the faithful have Jesus formed in their heart they can boldly say, ‘It is thanks to Mary that what I possess is Jesus, her fruit, and without her I would not have him.’

    "...When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to his spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work striking wonders in souls is that he fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with his faithful and inseparable spouse."⁸

---

NOTES:

8. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", America Press Edition, No. 17.

end of excerpts from Newsletter 1999 #4

Newsletter 1999 Issue 5

Newsletter 2000 Issue 1

    In his Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Man) Pope John Paul II states: "The special characteristic of the motherly love that the Mother of God inserts in the mystery of the Redemption and the life of the Church finds expression in its exceptional closeness to man and all that happens to him. It is in this that the mystery of the Mother consists. The Church, which looks to her with altogether special love and hope, wishes to make this mystery her own in an ever deeper manner...

    "The Father’s eternal love, which has been manifested in the history of mankind through the Son whom the Father gave... comes close to each of us through this Mother and thus takes on tokens that are of more easy understanding and access by each person." ³

---

^NOTES:

    3.  Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Redemptor Hominis, (Redeemer of Man), United States Catholic Conference, No. 22.

end of excerpt from Newsletter 2000 #1

Newsletter 2000 Issue 2 

    The Directory of the Ministry and Life of Priests tells us: "There is an ‘essential rapport … between the Mother of Jesus and the priesthood of the ministry of the Son,’ stemming from the existing one between the divine maternity of Mary and the priesthood of Christ.

    "In light of such a rapport, Marian spirituality is rooted in every priest. Priestly spirituality could not be considered complete if it were to fail to include the message of Christ’s words on the Cross, in which He conferred His Mother to the beloved disciple, and, through him, to all priests called to continue his work of redemption.

    "Like John at the foot of the Cross, every priest has been entrusted, in a special way, with Mary as Mother (cf Jn 19:26-27).

    "Priests, who are among the favored disciples of Jesus, crucified and risen, should welcome Mary as their Mother in their own life, bestowing her with constant attention and prayer. The Blessed Virgin then becomes the Mother who leads them to Christ, who makes them sincerely love the Church, who intercedes for them and guides them toward the Kingdom of heaven…

    "But they are not devout sons if they do not know how to imitate the virtues of Mary. The priest will look to Mary to be a humble, obedient and chaste minister and to give testimony of charity in the total surrender to God and the Church." ⁹

---

^NOTES:

    9. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, No. 68, as in Inside the Vatican, Special Supplement, November, 1994, p. 25.
    

Newsletter 2000 Issue 3

    The late Archbishop Luis M. Martinez of Mexico strikingly speaks of the ongoing cooperation of Mary with the Holy Spirit regarding the reproduction of Jesus within us: "Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls…

    "Now, how will this mystical reproduction be brought about in souls? In the same way in which Jesus was brought into the world, for God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works. Divine acts have a wealth of variety because they are the work of omnipotence; nevertheless, a most perfect unity always shines forth from them because they are the fruit of wisdom; and this divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.

    "In His miraculous birth, Jesus was the fruit of heaven and earth…The Holy Spirit conveyed the divine fruitfulness of the Father to Mary, and the virginal soil brought forth in an ineffable manner our most loving Savior, the divine Seed, as the prophets called Him…

    "That is the way He is reproduced in souls. He is always the fruit of heaven and earth.

    "Two artisans must concur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary. Two sanctifiers are necessary to souls, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, for they are the only ones who can reproduce Christ.

    "Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sanctify us in different ways. The first is the Sanctifier by essence; because He is God, who is infinite sanctity; because He is the personal Love that completes, so to speak, the sanctity of God, consummating His life and His unity, and it belongs to Him to communicate to souls the mystery of that sanctity. The Virgin Mary, for her part, is the co-operator, the indispensable instrument in and by God’s design. From Mary’s maternal relation to the human body of Christ is derived her relation to His Mystical Body which is being formed through all the centuries until the end of time, when it will be lifted up to the heavens, beautiful, splendid, complete, and glorious.

    "These two, then, the Holy Spirit and Mary, are the indispensable artificers of Jesus, the indispensable sanctifiers of souls. Any saint in heaven can co-operate in the sanctification of a soul, but his co-operation is not necessary, not profound, not constant: while the co-operation of these two artisans of Jesus of whom we have just been speaking is so necessary that without it souls are not sanctified (and this by the actual design of Providence), and so intimate that it reaches to the very depths of our soul. For the Holy Spirit pours charity into our heart, makes a habitation of our soul, and directs our spiritual life by means of His gifts. The Virgin Mary has the efficacious influence of Mediatrix in the most profound and delicate operations of grace in our souls. And, finally, the action of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the most holy Virgin Mary are constant; without them, not one single character of Jesus would be traced on our souls, no virtue grow, no gift be developed, no grace increased, no bond of union with God be strengthened in the rich flowering of the spiritual life.

    "Such is the place that the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary have in the order of sanctification. Therefore, Christian piety should put these two artisans of Christ in their true place, making devotion to them something necessary, profound, and constant." ¹⁸

Newsletter 2000 Issue 4

  end of excerpt from Newsletter 2000 #4

February 5, 2001

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