Feast, October 16 (Triduum, October 13-15). To understand your dignity as Mother of God in all its fullness, we would have to understand fully the dignity of the Son of God whose Mother you are. You are Queen because you are the Mother of the Word Incarnate. But who can describe the matchless purity and beauty of your soul? You are ever active in procuring for each and every one of us, by fervent and ceaseless intercession all the heavenly gifts we need. The Gospel speaks of you as standing beneath the cross. You became the Mother of a Son who is almighty, eternal and infinite in all perfections, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Mary, My Mother, you and good St. Joseph were married to become the models of family life. A man and a woman had both taken part in the degradation of our race; they must both have part in its restoration. You are not only the Mother of the guilty but also Mother of Jesus, their Judge. The early Christians, all lovers of the Eucharist, who visited you frequently during your hidden life of adoration, must have taken away with them the spirit of your Eucharistic devotion. When I address the Almighty, I am frequently fearful because of my sinfulness in the presence of His infinite majesty and holiness. The title "Our Lady of Sorrows" focuses on Mary's intense suffering during the passion and death of Christ. You are indeed all-powerful in Heaven, but your omnipotence is not one of authority and command, but of intercession. Like you, he was of the tribe of Juda and the family of David. Although it is true that Jesus in glory, by means of His divine wounds, is our intercessor before the Father and all God's gifts come to us through His merits, you are the all-powerful suppliant, through whom every prayer reaches up to Him and every grace comes down. You will be inspired by the overflow of love for Our Lady. Though you are raised to the high dignity of Queen of Heaven, you have not forgotten man's wretched condition. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Online Saints & Angels Facts Feastday: December 12 Patron: of the Americas Author and Publisher - Catholic Online Printable Catholic Saints PDFs Shop Our Lady of Guadalupe An elder Mexican man makes his way to Mass in the early morning twilight of December 9, 1531. Such a stain would have reflected upon your Son, who is Holiness itself. Help me to be generous with God by turning to good account the graces that He ever bestows on me, and by rising promptly when I fall, with renewed confidence in His mercy. Our Lady of Good Counsel, I beg you to teach me true heavenly wisdom which was the source of every good deed you performed. What grief filled your heart as you gazed upon your Son with His flesh torn, His head encircled with long, sharp thorns, His whole body covered with blooda mock-King with a reed in His hand and cast-off cloak over His bleeding shoulders. To you we owe the life of grace, without which there is no escape from the death of sin. Satan is more humiliated at seeing himself under the heel of the lowliest of creatures than at feeling himself crushed by God's almighty arm. With a "fiat" God created light, heaven, earth, but with your "fiat" God became Man. The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is celebrated on September 15 and is dedicated to honoring the spiritual martyrdom of Mary. May my faith influence my conduct. Be a mother to me and save me. 1. Mary, Mother of God, I believe that as Mediatrix with Jesus you share also in His sovereign dominion over the universe. There are some who are far from their Father's house, who even refuse to turn to you. Your name means Sea of Bitterness. 3. How many afflicted hearts are consoled in you! Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Feast Day February 27. Isaias called you a Virgin; "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be Emmanuel." Teach parents to care for their children as God's sacred trust, to guard them from sin and to lead them in the way of virtue. Therefore, no one could ever love me more, after Christ, than you do. The word compassion derives from the Latin roots cum and patior which means "to suffer with." To all of us your Immaculate Heart after that of Jesus is most loving and most merciful. You had a Heart of love from which in the course of time was to be formed the Sacred Heart of the loving Christ. It was His will that you dispense mercy by helping sinners, healing the sick, relieving the distressed and comforting the sorrowful everywhere. Censor, IMPRIMATUR John Mark Gannon, D.D., Archbishop, Bishop of Erie. The first feast of Our Lady of Silence will be celebrated on Sunday, August 1, in Avezzano, in the. By this title I understand: (1) upon your mediation and intercession depends the distribution of the riches of the treasury which Jesus acquired for the salvation of men; (2) consequently, no grace comes to all of us as a body or to any of us in particular which you have not asked for in our behalf; (3) according to the order of things established by God, you have become, under Jesus Christ, after Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christfrom whom you can never be separatedthe source and principle for us of all supernatural life. I shall realize that God, in His infinite wisdom will make all things work together unto my good. Mary, My Mother, you always lived under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit and in the closest possible union with Him. Your heart and His burned with one flame of love to the glory of the Father there at the altar. How fervently your mother and father thanked God for having given you to them and begged Him to accept the offering which they were making! Sanctifying grace likened you to God as it did no other pure creature. I may address myself to the saints for favors of various kinds, but my prayer must always pass through your hands if it is to reach the throne of grace and draw down the divine blessing. We recommend to you our hopes and our fears. In this mystery Jesus is plainly a Victim, and not so plainly a Priest; He could not better communicate His spirit of priesthood than by allowing you, His Mother, to present His outward offering He could find no worthier altar on which to offer Himself than your immaculate hands. Forgetting yourself completely, you were most intimately united with God. Help me to see that humility is nothing more nor less than a just and equal judgment of myself, my talents, my opportunities and the use I make of them. Mary, My Mother, help me to imitate your sinlessness by keeping my soul free from every willful sin by the faithful observance of God's commandments. This was your spiritual Motherhood. Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found, not taken, grace, as Lucifer tried to take it. I consecrate myself entirely to your Immaculate Heart. After the Ascension you found the past under another form; the consecrated Bread the Apostle John placed on your lips was Jesus, who was formed from your own flesh and with whom your body was again united. 18, 3). God destined you to be a Mother of Mercy, a Refuge of Sinners and an Advocate of the Afflicted, and you fulfill these offices perfectly. Only thus could you become one with Your God in the salvation of souls. Surely it is through your special influence as Mediatrix of Graces that this Life is shared with me. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Mediatrix of All Graces. Coming from the Latin words cum and patior, compassion means to suffer. Mary, Mother of God, though marriage and motherhood were the cherished ideals of every Jewish maiden, you vowed your virginity to God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We obtain everything for our peace of soul in time and eternity from the Father through the Heart of Jesus and everything from Jesus through your Heart. He alone has paid the full price of our ransom, and to this price no one else has contributed. There is no closer bond of love among relationships than that which exists between a mother and her son. we celebrated the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. I earnestly wish to make atonement for all of them. When you later returned to your home, you were under the loving care of your mother, Saint Anne. Yours is a queenship of dominion. Following their example and striving to attain to their faith, joining in their admiration, in their intense pleading, I, a poor sinner, who am so in need of help and pity, in need of your mercy, cry out to you: Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us . Mary, My Mother, you are all beautifulbeautiful in mind, in body, in soul! Your redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's redeeming wisdom. Through your prayers, may Jesus make me live of His life through sanctifying and actual grace. You have entered into the highest state of power and glory in Heaven in order that you may help us in our journey through so many dangers to the kingdom of Heaven. Mary, My Mother, I am one of the murderers who slew your beloved Son, for it was my sins, together with the malice and cruelty of the Jews, which crucified Him. Mary, My Mother, you are Queen also because your are Co-Redemptrix. The Heart of Jesus was a pure Heart, symbolized by the light that St. Margaret Mary saw streaming round it. The feast day of Our Lady of Compassion is every 15th of September. 1. You used most perfectly every actual grace given you by God in acts and virtue. Pray for us Christians who sigh to you in this vale of tears so that we may be comforted, enlightened, strengthened, guided, and finally saved! How often has mortal sin, destroying in me the beautiful image of the Blessed Trinity, brought death to my soul, delivered me to God's wrath and condemned me to everlasting hell-fire! Furthermore, Jesus made the revelation of His divinity and the strengthening of the faith of His disciples the effect of your intercession. There were two great altars on Calvary; one in the Body of Jesus, the other in your heart; for on that mount, at the same time that your Son sacrificed His body by death, you sacrificed your soul by compassion. You formed His Body in order that it might be given us in death and in the Blessed Sacrament. He died out of love for us; this was His final proof of love. As a child runs to its mother in every need and finds comfort in her glance and kind word, I can turn to you for help when I need it, for you are truly my Mother, whose heart is overflowing with kindness and mercy. We know that you are ever ready to be our help in trouble, our solace in affliction, our hope in despair. Help me to imitate your zeal in assisting my neighbor in his needs. Even when I disappoint you by doing my best to shake off the cross God has placed upon my shoulders, you pray for me. On the day of Pentecost the Apostles' worldly views about the Kingdom of God on earth were banished by the Spirit of God, and holiness replaced their imperfections, but no-taint of the slightest sin had to be removed from your virginal soul.