Meditation on the woman that I love Mary the Blessed Virgin Pray from your heart Say the Rosary daily First week - Act of Sorrow, Holy Spirit prayer - one Our Father, three Hail Mary's The Holy Spirit wishes to fashion His chosen one in and through Mary. He tells her, "My well beloved, my spouse, let all your virtues take root in my chosen ones." (Sirach 24:12) "That they may grow from strength to strength and from grace to grace." (Sirach 24) My friends, we are those chosen ones that the Holy Spirit desires. By doing the Spiritual Exercises of Mary you will overcome all evil habits, provided you do them as Mary wants you to do. All things written on these pages are written by the inspiration of Mary, as she has chosen you to fight under her banner. Our flag is the white flag of peace and purity. St. Louis de Montfort states; "When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it." St. Louis says, "Those who are consecrated to Mary are carried in her womb, and her sweet milk." (The Word of God) The Holy Spirit hastens to transform you, and form you in Jesus Christ the Eternal Wisdom. Mary will educate, feed, and cleanse you to take away all your rust. If you put new wine in a barrel of sour wine it will spoil the new wine. This is the cause of original sin, but Mary will clean the old barrel and purify it so the good wine is made clean. Then she will offer her son pure clean wine. Would you not rather that Mary nourish you instead of going to Jesus with the rust around you? Of course you would. This is why God sends us to Mary. Oh my love, my loving Mary, the Blessed Virgin I come to you as a little child that you may cleanse me from all of my impurity, and offer me to Jesus Christ. I would rather be struck dead than offend Jesus and you from any deliberate faults. Please, protect me from the evil one. Examine your conscience to find out what is keeping you back. Second week - Act of Sorrow, Holy Spirit prayer - one Our Father, three Hail Mary's St. Louis says, "One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work striking wonders in souls is that He fails to find them sufficiently close to union with His faithful and inseparable spouse. I say inseparable spouse for the soul is not firm and strong in the service of God." How can you be truly devoted to Mary when you run with things of the world which makes you so carnal (flesh). Mary was an interior person. She did all the work that was expected out of her, but she was in complete union with God. If you wish to experience Mary you must be an interior and contemplative person. Devotion to Mary has God's approval. All the saints in the New Testament were devoted to Mary. This is the opinion and example of the saints. Even the devil and his followers, forced by the evidence of the truth, were frequently obliged to acknowledge Mary against their will. St. Louis says, "I shall quote one only of the many passages which I have collected, (C.D. 40) from the fathers and doctors of the Church to support this truth." "Devotion to you, O Blessed Virgin, is a means to salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save." Examine yourself again; are you truly devoted to Mary? The Spiritual Exercises of Mary will show you how to be devoted to Mary. At Fatima the Blessed Mother said, "God would be much offended by fashion. More souls go to hell from sins of impurity than all other sins." To combat this, say the Rosary daily, 24 Hail Mary's a day, if possible one every hour, and when you sleep or forget then make up the Hail Mary's you missed as this will keep you living in the presence of God. Give yourself constantly to Mary throughout the day. I am all Yours Jesus through Mary. I am all Yours Jesus through Mary. Blessed Virgin Mary pray for me a sinner. Third week - Act of Sorrow, Holy Spirit prayer - one Our Father, three Hail Mary's The Scripture says, "Who is this that comes forth like the dawn as beautiful as the moon, as resplendent as the sun?" (Cont. 6:10) Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is necessary for all people simply to work out their salvation, it is even more necessary for those who are called to special perfection. St. Louis de Montfort says, "I do not believe that anyone can acquire intimate (personal relation) union with our Lord without close union with the Blessed Virgin. O Mary I promise to obey you, if you let me know God's will for me, for I desire to reach perfect union with Jesus and you, for Jesus has given me to you in a very special way. If you do these exercises you will reach union with Jesus and Mary. You must change your ways and struggle with yourself. Listen to what the Book of Wisdom says, "Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist." (Wis. 2:6) The more you give yourself to Mary, the more the devil tries to allure you to things and pleasures of the world. "Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfume." (Wis. 2:7) This is what the world says to you if you renounce Jesus and Mary. "Let us lie and wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sin against the law." (Wis. 2:12) This is the devil talking as he plans to set many traps against those who are devoted to Mary, but do not fear. With our Rosary in our hand we will step on the serpent's head. As long as we remain humble Mary will assist us. She is near you even before you call on her. When the devil tempts you with temptation of the flesh and of the spirit, and you feel tempted to despair, say the Hail Holy Queen. "There is no suffering like mine," as she stands at the foot of the cross. Take your complaining to her as she is an understanding mother. St. Theresa of the Child Jesus took her complaining to Mary. If this great saint did, we must also. Pray to the Sorrowful Mother. Blessed Virgin Mary pray for me a sinner. Fourth week - Act of Sorrow, Holy Spirit prayer - one Our Father, three Hail Mary's St. Louis de Montfort says, "Mary alone found grace before God, without the help of any other creatures." (Lk. 1:30) No other saint found grace but only Mary. "All those who found grace before God have found it only through her," according to St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Louis de Montfort and the teachings of the Church. "She was found full of grace when she was greeted by the Archangel Gabriel." (Lk. 1:28) Meditate on this "Full of Grace." To be full of grace you have to be perfect as she is God's perfect creature. The Church states that she is Mediatrix of all graces. Jesus Christ is our Mediator. "So that the Almighty made her sole custodian of His treasures and the sole dispenser of His grace. She can give these graces to whom ever she chooses. She can lead them along the narrow path to Heaven and guide them through the narrow gate to life." The Scripture quotes, "Happy are those who keep watching daily at my gates." (Prov. 8:33-34) She can give joy to anyone who seeks her. Jesus is always the fruit and the Son of Mary. The genuine tree that bears the fruit of life, as the true mother who bears that son. "Come to me, all you that yearn for me, and be filled with my fruit." (Sirach 24:26) Also it says, "For he who finds me wins favor from the Lord." (Prov. 8:35) To Mary alone, "God gave the keys to the cellar." (Song of Songs 1:3) There is a treasure in that cellar. Graces are given to Mary for her to dispense them to whom she will, when she will, how she will, and how much she will. But if we appear proud before her how can she give these graces to us? She will pray that you amend your life. If we appear before her in humility, the more she will give us her gifts. O Mary look at me! I am an insignificant person. I am good for nothing of myself. I must humble myself before you, for the more I humble myself the more grace I will receive through you. I trust you so much believing that you will never, never refuse me anything that is good for my soul or the souls of others. I am willing to give up my life to save others especially in my family. God never says no to Mary and Mary doesn't know how to say no to her clients. Mary lead me to that secret way of perfection. St. Louis says, "All the great saints, those richest in grace and virtues will be the ones working constantly in prayer to the most Blessed Virgin, looking up to her as the perfect model to imitate and as a powerful helper to assist them." St. Louis says this will happen in latter days and soon indeed, because Almighty God and His holy mother are to raise up a great army of saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedar towers above little shrubs. We will continue next time. ICS Publication, Washington, DC, 1996 Springtime story of a little white flower written by herself and dedicated to the Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus. It is to you, Dear Mother, to you who are doubly my Mother, that I come to confide the story of my soul. The day you asked me to do this, it seemed to me it would distract my heart by too much concentration on myself, but since then Jesus has made me feel that in obeying simply, I would be pleasing Him; besides, I'm going to be doing only one thing: I shall begin to sing what I must sing eternally: "The Mercies of the Lord." Before taking up my pen, I knelt before the statue of Mary (the one that has given so many proofs of the maternal preferences of heaven's Queen for our family), and I begged her to guide my hand that it trace no line displeasing to her. Then opening the Holy Gospels my eyes fell on these words: "And going up a mountain, he called to him men of his own choosing, and they came to him." (Mk. 3:13) This is the mystery of my vocation, my whole life, and especially the mystery of the privileges Jesus showered on my soul. He does not call those who are worthy but those whom He pleases or as St. Paul says, "God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will show pity to whom he will show pity. So then there is question not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God showing mercy." I wondered for a long time why God has preferences, why all souls don't receive an equal amount of graces. I was surprised when I saw Him shower His extraordinary favors on saints who had offended Him, for instance, St. Paul and St. Augustine, and whom He forced, so to speak, to accept His graces. When reading the lives of the saints, I was puzzled at seeing how Our Lord was pleased to caress certain ones from the cradle to the grave, allowing no obstacle in their way when coming to Him, helping them with such favors that they were unable to soil the immaculate beauty of their baptismal robe. I wondered why poor savages died in great numbers without even having heard the name of God pronounced. Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the Lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. And so it is the world of souls, Jesus' garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God's glances when He looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.
I understood, too, that Our Lord's love is revealed as perfectly in the most simple soul who resists His grace in nothing as in the most excellent soul; in fact, since the nature of love is to humble oneself, if all souls resembled those of the holy Doctors who illuminated the Church with the clarity of their teachings, it seems God would not descend so low when coming to their heart. But He created the child who knows only how to make his feeble cries heard; He has created the poor savage who has nothing but the natural law to guide him. It is to their hearts that God deigns to lower Himself. These are the wild flowers whose simplicity attracts Him. When coming down in this way, God manifests His infinite grandeur. Just as the sun shines simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it. And just as in nature all the seasons are arranged in such a way as to make the humblest daisy bloom on a set day, in the same way, everything works out for the good of each soul.
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