November 6, 2023 Reflection – Come, I desire all of you…
Come, I desire all of you… November 6, 2023 Dear Family of Mary! Today, as I pray I feel a strong call to gaze upon and celebrate Our Lady. She is our hope in these days. We need her. And she needs us. She told us in 1984: Saturday, February 25, 1984: “Know that I love all of you. Know that you are all mine. To no one do I desire to give more than to you. Come to me all of you. Stay with me. I want to be your Mother. Come, I desire all of you.” Let these words from Our Lady penetrate your hearts! They are life-changing. Our Lady longs for us, loves us with her powerful maternal heart! She desires us to be with her, to be close to her. She needs us!!! We are being called by Mother Mary to help her in these very pivotal days. She needs us. We must respond with all our hearts. But I also think we need to know who She is! Who is this amazing woman, the Mother of God? How can we fathom her greatness? By reading this: This excerpt from a sermon of St. Anselm (Oratio 52; PL 158, 955-956) is used in the Roman Office of Readings for the Solemnity (Solemn Feast) of the Immaculate Conception on December 8. It proclaims so eloquently the exquisite grace that is Mary! She is Mother of God! She is the Immaculate Conception! She is the Door through which our Savior entered the world. She is also the Mother of Mercy, for she is the Mother of our Redeemer: St. Anselm wrote: Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God. The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb. Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain. Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation. To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary. God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed. Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself. (St. Anselm, (Oratio 52; PL 158, 955-956). Now listen again to the words Our Lady spoke to us in 1984: Saturday, February 25, 1984: “Know that I love all of you. Know that you are all mine. To no one do I desire to give more than to you. Come to me all of you. Stay with me. I want to be your Mother. Come, I desire all of you.” In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan (c) Mary TV 2023