Remember, O Creator Lord



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Remember, O Creator Lord,

that in the Virgin’s sacred womb

Thou wast conceived, and of her flesh

didst our mortality assume.

 

Mother of grace, O Mary blest,

to thee, sweet fount of love, we fly;

shield us through life, and take us hence

to thy dear bosom when we die.

 

O Jesu! born of Mary bright!

Immortal glory be to Thee;

praise to the Father infinite,

and Holy Ghost eternally. Amen.

 

This
is the traditional hymn for the
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary for
the hours of Terce, Sext, None, and Compline.

Maternal encouragement of the Blessed Virgin Mary: May, the month of Mary


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Mary helps us,
she encourages us to ensure that every moment of our life is a step forward on
this exodus, on this journey toward God. May she help us in this way to make
the reality of heaven, God’s greatness, also present in the life of our world.
Is this not basically the paschal dynamism of the human being, of every person
who wants to become heavenly, perfectly happy, by virtue of Christ’s
Resurrection? And might this not be the beginning and anticipation of a
movement that involves every human being and the entire cosmos? She, from whom
God took his flesh and whose soul was pierced by a sword on Calvary, was
associated first and uniquely in the mystery of this transformation for which
we, also often pierced by the sword of suffering in this world, are all
striving.

Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the BVM, August 15, 2008

Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort


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O God, who willed to guide the steps of your priest, saint
Louis-Marie, into the way of salvation and of delight in Christ in the company
of the Blessed Virgin, grant that we, by following his example, may meditate
the mysteries of your love and devote ourselves tirelessly to the upbuilding of
your Church.


Saint Louis-Marie’s Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin
Mary
can
be followed here.

And if you want to know more about the rosary, read a classic: The Secret
of the Rosary
by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.

A brief biography of Saint Louis-Marie can be read here.

All of Montfort’s works are worthy of time but especially noteworthy is the Total Consecration.

Prayer to Our Lady of Good Counsel

OL Good Counsel.JPGHoly Virgin, moved by the painful uncertainty we experience in seeking and aquiring the true and the good, we cast ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel. We beseech thee: come to our aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when the twin darknesses or error and of evil that plots our ruin by leading minds and hearts astray.

Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the victims of doubt and of error so that they may not be seduced by evil masquerading as good; strengthen them against the hostile and corrupting forces of passion and of sin.

Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult situations, the course agreeable to our salvation. Supported by thy hand we shall thus journey without harm along the paths taught us by the word and example of Jesus our Savior, following the Sun of Truth and Justice in freedom and safety across the battlefield of life under the guidance of thy maternal Star, until we come at length to the harbor of salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and everlasting peace.

Pope Pius XII

23 January 1953

Easter Vespers II and the Eastertide Marian Antiphon

And it is finished…the sacred liturgies of the Easter Triduum…

And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back, for it was very large, alleluia.

O God, on this day through Thine only-begotten Son has overcome death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life, do Thou follow with Thine aid the desires which Thou does put into our minds and by Thy continual help bring the same to good effect.

The Marian Antiphon concluding Compline during Eastertide is the Queen of Heaven Rejoice.

V. Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:
R. For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia,
V. Has risen, as He said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
.

Let us pray:
O God, who by the resurrection of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant, we beg You, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.

Read about this prayer here; it has an interesting history.

The sacred Liturgy follows the biblical pattern of prayer: sundown to sundown. You will notice that our Jewish brothers and sisters do the same. So one’s following the liturgical life of the Church needs to remember that telling time is a bit different in that a liturgical day does not begin with sunrise to sundown. Consequently, the sacred Triduum we’ve just celebrated started with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ends not with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday but at second Vespers on Easter Sunday. This is a topic some family and friends don’t easily comprehend.

The essay “Liturgical Time and Space” in The Handbook for Liturgical Studies (in 5 vols) edited by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB is an excellent resource for these matters liturgical.

At the message of the Angel

Hail, Mary, full of grace. The is with thee.

 

Hail, thou star of ocean!

Portal of the sky!

Ever Virgin Mother

Of the Lord most high!

 

Oh, by Gabriel’s Ave,


AnnunciazioneJPG.jpgUttered long ago,

Eva’s name reversing,

‘Stablish peace below.

 

Break the captive’s fetters;

Light on blindness pour;

All our ills expelling,

Every bliss implore.

 

Show thyself a mother;

Offer Him our sighs,

Who for us incarnate

Did not thee despise.

 

Virgin of all virgins!

To thy shelter take us;

Gentlest of the gentle!

Chaste and gentle make us.

 

Still as on we journey,

Help our weak endeavor;

Till with thee and Jesus

We rejoice for ever.

 

Through the highest heaven,

To the Almighty Three,

Father, Son, and Spirit,

One same glory be. Amen.

 

At his general audience on march 24, 2004, Pope John Paul II said the following about today’s feast of the Annunciation of the Lord:

 

This feast, which this year falls in the middle of Lent, on one hand refers us to the beginnings of salvation, and on the other invites us to turn our gaze to the paschal mystery. We look at Christ crucified who has redeemed humanity, fulfilling to the end the will of the Father. On Calvary, in his last moments of life, Jesus entrusted us to Mary as Mother and to her he has commended us as children.

 

Associated to the mystery of the Incarnation, Our Lady is co-participant in the mystery of redemption. Her fiat, which we recall tomorrow, echoes that of the incarnate Word. In profound symphony with Christ’s and the Virgin’s fiat, each one of us is called to unite his own “yes” to the mysterious plans of Providence. In fact, only from full adherence to the Divine Will do that joy and true peace spring which we all ardently desire also for our times.

Nine Month Novena in Honor of the Virgin of the Incarnation

This novena is prayed each day from the Solemnity of the Annunciation to

the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, March 25 – December 25

 

Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen…)

 


OLPH.jpgO Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we praise thee, a thousand times we greet thee, for the joy thou did know when the Son of God became flesh in thy womb. Because thou are most powerful, O Virgin Mother of God, grant what we beseech thee for the love of God:  (here name the three intentions).

 

Memorare (Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary…)

 

Hail Mary

 

May the heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world and in the hearts of all, even until the end of time. Amen.

The Incarmation was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence

From a letter by Saint Leo the Great

 

Lowliness is assumed by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

 


Annunciation detail.jpgHe who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it. For in the Savior there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and man, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins. He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

 

Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet does not separate himself from the Father’s glory. He is born in a new condition, by a new birth. He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death. He who is true God is also true man. There is not falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of man and the preeminence of God coexist in mutual relationship.

 

As God does not change by his condescension, so man is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfills what is proper to the flesh. One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries. As the Word does not lose equality with the Father’s glory, so the flesh does not leave behind the nature of our race.

 

One and the same person -this must be said over and over again–is truly the Son of God and truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He is man in virtue of the fact that “the Word was made flesh, and dwells among us.”

The Annunciation of the Lord to Mary

As Christ came into the world, he said: Behold! I have come to do your will, O God.

(Entrance Antiphon)

 


Annunciation2.jpgO glorious lady, throned in rest,

Amidst the starry host above,

Who gavest nurture from thy breast

To God, with pure maternal love.

 

What we had lost through sinful Eve

The Blossom sprung from thee restores,

And, granting bliss to souls that grieve,

Unbars the everlasting doors.

 

O Gate, through which hath passed

the King,

O Hall, whence Light shone through the gloom;

The ransomed nations praise and sing

Life given from the Virgin womb.

 

All honor, praise, and glory be,

O Jesus, Virgin-born to Thee;

All glory, as is ever meet,

To Father, and to Paraclete. Amen.

 

 

The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates ‘the fullness of time,’ the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the ‘whole fullness of deity’ would dwell ‘bodily.’ The divine response to her question, “How can this be, since I know not man?’ was given by the power of the Spirit: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you.’ (CCC 484)

Walking with the Pope in Africa


OLPH.jpgHoly Mary, Mother of God, Protectress of Africa, you have given to the world the true Light, Jesus Christ. Through your obedience to the Father and the grace of the Holy Spirit, you have given us the source of our reconciliation and our justice, Jesus Christ, our peace and our joy. Mother of Tenderness and Wisdom, show us Jesus, your Son and the Son of God. Guide our path of conversion, so that Jesus might shine his glory on us in every aspect of our personal, familial and social lives.

Mother, full of Mercy and Justice, through your docility to the Spirit, the Counselor, obtain for us the grace to be witnesses of the Risen Lord, so that we will increasingly become the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Mother of Perpetual Help, we entrust to your maternal intercession the preparation and fruits of the Second Special Assembly for Africa. Queen of Peace, pray for us! Our Lady of Africa, pray for us!