Mary, Mother of the Church!!
(c)Mary TV/Anthony Zubac June 10, 2019Memorial of the Mary, Mother of the Church Dear Family of Mary, Today is the wonderful new Memorial of Mary Mother of the Church! Our Lady can pour out much needed graces and blessings today through the Church. She truly is the Mother of the Church and we have been experiencing her Motherhood in a personal way in Medjugorje. She has come to us to be our Mother in these times when the Church is under severe attack. She has come to buoy us up, give us her mantle of protection and help us to be strong in faith for our brothers and sisters. She told us this in her message of June 2, 2016: “Dear children, as the Mother of the Church, as your mother, I am smiling as I look at you: how you are coming to me, how you are gathering around me, how you are seeking me. My comings among you are proof of how much Heaven loves you. They indicate to you the way to eternal life, to salvation. My apostles, you who strive to have a pure heart and to have my Son in it, you are on the good way. You who are seeking my Son are seeking the good way. He left many signs of His love. He left hope. It is easy to find Him if you are ready for sacrifice and penance – if you have patience, mercy and love for your neighbors. Many of my children do not see and do not hear because they do not want to. They do not accept my words and my works, yet through me, my Son calls everyone. His Spirit illuminates all of my children in the light of the Heavenly Father, in the unity of Heaven and Earth, in mutual love – because love invokes love and makes works more important than words. Therefore, my apostles, pray for your Church, love it and do works of love. No matter how betrayed or wounded, it is here because it comes from the Heavenly Father. Pray for your shepherds so that in them you may see the greatness of the love of my Son. Thank you.”(June 02, 2016) Our Lady gave us all we need in this message. All we need to respond to the needs of our Church in these days. We are being called to be strong for our Church, particularly as families. Yesterday, on Pentecost, during the Daily Rosary, Denis and I drew a saint for the day, as we always do. But yesterday three saints fell out of the basket! Saint Margaret of Scotland, Blessed Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi, and Saints Louis and Zellie Martin!!! All of these holy ones are patrons of holy families! The message was clear, the Holy Spirit is coming to strengthen and raise up holy families in these days for our Church! Our Lady, as Mother of the Church, is calling us to help her protect and strengthen the Church! Here is a beautiful prayer, written by St. Pope Paul VI, to Mary Mother of the Church. We can pray it together and take to heart our call to help Our Lady save the Church: PRAYER TO MARY MOTHER OF THE CHURCH (Composed by Saint Pope Paul VI) O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, to you we recommend the entire Church. You, who are the helper of bishops, protect and assist the bishops in their apostolic mission, and the many priests, religious, and lay people who collaborate with them in their arduous tasks. You who were given as Mother to the best- loved Disciple by your Divine Son at the moment of His saving death, remember the Christian people who entrust themselves to you. Remember all your children; support their prayers addressed to God; make strong their faith; make firm their hope; increase their love. Remember those who are in tribulation, in need, in danger, above all those who are suffering persecution and who have been cast into prison for the Faith. For these, O Virgin, obtain fortitude and hasten the longed-for day of their just liberation. Look with benign eyes on our separated brethren and deign to unite us, you who brought forth Christ as the bridge of union between God and mankind. O Temple of Light, without shadow and without blemish, intercede with your only Son, the Mediator of our reconciliation with the Father, so that He may have mercy on our short-comings and remove all dissension among us, granting to our souls the joy of loving. To your Immaculate Heart, O Mary, we finally recommend the entire human race. Lead all to the knowledge of the one and true Savior, Jesus Christ; remove the scourges provoked by sin; give to the entire world peace in truth, in justice, in freedom and in love. Make it possible for the whole Church to raise to the God of mercies a majestic hymn of praise and of thanksgiving; a hymn of joy and exultation, because of the wonderful things the Lord has wrought through you, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen. Amen and Amen!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2019