Day: December 11, 2019

  Our Lady of Guadalupe J.M.J. December 12, 2019Our Lady of Guadalupe Dear Family of Mary!(I am re-sharing this reflection, originally posted on December 12, 2013!!)  Today is the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is the patroness of the Americas. She appeared to Juan Diego, a peasant in Mexico, in 1531, and through this simple man she revealed her presence and love to the people of Mexico, great and small. Her image on the Tilma of St. Juan Diego has survived to this day, a true miracle which testifies to her apparitions to him, and her gift of grace and conversion to the people of the Americas.What has always touched me about Our Lady’s apparitions to Juan Diego is the tenderness with which she related to him. She was so loving, humble, gentle and patient with Juan Diego. Her famous words of comfort to him when his uncle was ill have stayed with me. Here they are: With a look of great love, Mary smiled at him and gently chided him for his doubts, “”Do not let anything afflict you, and do not be afraid of any illness, or accident, or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Do you need anything else?” (Quoted from: http://thomasfortoday.blogspot.com/2013/03/am-i-not-your-mother-our-lady-of.html  ) Do not be afraid…Am I not here who am your Mother?…Are you not under my shadow and protection?….Do you need anything else?…  These words are full of comfort and peace. This is Our Mother! She has spoken similar words to the visionaries of Medjugorje. Here are a few examples: Thursday, March 4, 1982 …Be patient, my angels, do not be afraid of anything.I am at your side and guard you. If you have any problems, whatever it be, call me. I will come immediately and help you in advising you on best resolving the difficulty. Go in peace, my angels. Goodbye.” April 25, 1998 “Dear children! Today I call you, through prayer, to open yourselves to God as a flower opens itself to the rays of the morning sun. Little children, do not be afraid. I am with you and I intercede before God for each of you so that your heart receives the gift of conversion. Only in this way, little children, will you comprehend the importance of grace in these times and God will become nearer to you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” June 2, 2007 “Dear children! Also in this difficult time God’s love sends me to you. My children, do not be afraid, I am with you. With complete trust give me your hearts, that I may help you to recognize the signs of the time in which you live. I will help you to come to know the love of my Son. I will triumph through you. Thank you.” January 2, 2010 “Dear children, Today I am calling you to, with complete trust and love, set out with me because I desire to acquaint you with my Son. Do not be afraid, my children, I am here with you; I am next to you. I am showing you the way to forgive yourselves, to forgive others, and, with sincere repentance of heart, to kneel before the Father. Make everything die in you that hinders you from loving and saving, that you may be with Him and in Him. Decide for a new beginning, a beginning of sincere love of God Himself. Thank you.” Our Lady has consistently demonstrated her motherly presence and solicitude for almost 33 years. (38 years now!!) Do we need anything else??? Also, when we live in this trusting and intimate way with Our Lady, we become like Juan Diego, we become carriers of her presence to others. As Denis said to us today during the Daily Rosary, we become the tilma! We are living proof of Our Lady’s presence and love, because she shines on our faces. Our shipmate on the digital sea, Reuben, said it this way: I just feel so privileged to be here; to see us all become the tilma! This is real, real as the rose Mary sent my family on the first day of this advent, real as all the angelic hosannas of every Eucharist, real as Mary’s presence in Medjugorje, and real as the communion of saints we gather into our great boat of prayer! Praise be!! I want to be closer to Jesus, I want the spirit poured into me, but I can’t do it without Mary’s immaculate mold. She gives it freely, she comes to do so!! Ave! We become the tilma together as we pray in response to her call and live her messages! So, like St. Juan Diego, may we proceed without fear, knowing that Our Mother is with us and we are under her protection and care. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2013 (2019) PS. The rose Reuben mentions was a supernatural gift given to his mother in law the other day. Here is the story: Dear Cathy, I have attached a picture of a present left on my mother-in-law’s kitchen table during this first Sunday in Advent. The house was locked and no one has a key, and while we were all out doing our separate things, a perfect white rose was left for our return. My mother in law has been struggling to nourish her faith after the passing of her husband. Her husband was on earth a faithful Irish man with a great love for the rosary. What a joyful look was on my wife and my mother-in-law’s faces, and what a joyful start to our Advent. I want to share it with you all at Mary TV because it was not possible for me to pray with you on the digital sea over these last few days, and so you were all very acutely present in my own personal Rosary during the hours preceding such a precious gift…Ave! Here is the Rose!       Thank you, Reuben, for sharing this gift from heaven for your family!!!

    “I am the Immaculate Conception”    (c)Mary TV     J.M.J December 11, 2019 Dear Family of Mary! One more day, I want to linger over the great mystery of the Immaculate Conception.  Here is something I wrote back in 2014 about it! The Immaculate Conception is one of the more difficult dogmas of the Catholic Church, at least for many of us. Our Lady was declared by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 to be “The Immaculate Conception”. I love the way Pope Pius XI spoke about this declaration in the Apostolic Constitution, “Ineffabilis Deus”: And indeed it is wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father will to give His only-begotten Son – the Son whom, equal to the Father and begotten by Him, the Father loves from His heart – and to give this Son in such a way that He would be the one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom the Son Himself chose to make His Mother and it was from her that the Holy Spirit willed and brought it about that he should be conceived and born from whom He himself proceeds.” (“Ineffabilis Deus” – quoted from “Madonna, Mary in the Catholic Tradition. Fr. Frederick M Jelly, O.P. p. 100-101) Don’t you love this! Our Lady is so connected to the Trinity, so much chosen by all three Persons!! She is in the heart of their plan to save humanity!! But as the Dogma explains, it is clear that Mary is just as saved that by plan as all the rest of us. The Dogma declares: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her Conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful. (PTOL 80-81) The key words are “in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free…” Our Lady was preserved from original sin, by the salvific act of her Son! Jesus saved Mary from original sin at her conception through His death and resurrection, even though Jesus’ death was to happen years later! (It’s a bit like “Back to the Future”.) And Our Lady referred to this unusual grace in one of her messages: March 02, 2013 “Dear children! Anew, in a motherly way, I am calling you not to be of a hard heart. Do not shut your eyes to the warnings which the Heavenly Father sends to you out of love. Do you love Him above all else? Do you repent for having often forgotten that the Heavenly Father, out of His great love, sent his Son to redeem us by the Cross? Do you repent for not yet having accepted the message? My children, do not resist the love of my Son. Do not resist hope and peace. Along with your prayer and fasting, by His cross, my Son will cast away the darkness that wants to surround you and come to rule over you. He will give you the strength for a new life. Living it according to my Son, you will be a blessing and a hope to all those sinners who wander in the darkness of sin. My children, keep vigil. I, as a mother, am keeping vigil with you. I am especially praying and watching over those whom my Son called to be light-bearers and carriers of hope for you – for your shepherds. Thank you.” “Do you repent for having often forgotten that the Heavenly Father, out of His great love, sent his Son to redeem us by the Cross?” There, she said it! The Father sent His Son to redeem us… Jesus came to redeem us all, including Mary, though her grace was prevenient, it came before He was conceived. And she was set apart for her great role in the redemptive plan. Well, in the Immaculate Conception we celebrate that prevenient grace. We stand in awe of the Trinity’s great love for us all, such great love that would provide for such a Mother for Jesus, and such a Mother for us. We now have this Mother who is “full of grace” as our Mother. And she is with us in a special way in Medjugorje. Thank you, dearest Mother, for being with us. Help us to keep vigil with you, praying for all those who do not yet know the love of your Son. May your Motherly and Immaculate Heart triumph in our day! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2019