Take the cross in your hands…
April 3, 2023
Monday of Holy Week
Dear Family of Mary!
Today the Gospel (John 12:1-11) tells us about Lazarus’s sister, Mary. She anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment and dried them with her hair. It was an intimate show of affection and adoration. She must have known that soon Jesus would be taken by the Jews and killed. We are aghast at the hostile reaction of the Jews. But that same hostility to Jesus is alive today in our world. It is up to us to bravely show our love for Jesus, just as Mary did. He is everything for us. Everything.
Our Lady said to us:
July 25, 2020
“Dear children! In this peaceless time in which the devil is harvesting souls to draw them to himself, I am calling you to persevering prayer, so that in prayer you discover the God of love and hope. Little children, take the Cross in your hands. May it be your encouragement for love to always win, in a special way now when the Cross and faith are rejected. You be a reflection and an example with your lives that faith and hope are still alive and a new world of peace is possible. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son, Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
May we show the world that faith, hope and love exist, and that Jesus is everything to us!
Here is one prayer that we can pray each day to prepare for Good Friday. In it we stay near Our Lady at the foot of the Cross:
At The Cross Her Station Keeping
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed.
Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blest
Of the sole begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying, glorious Son.
Is there one who would not weep,
‘Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.
For the sins of his own nation,
Saw him hang in desolation
Till his spirit forth he sent.
O sweet Mother! fount of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.
Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified.
Let me share with you his pain,
Who for all our sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.
Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live:
By the cross with you to stay,
There with you to weep and pray,
This I ask of you to give.
Virgin of all Virgins best!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share thy grief divine.
Mother may we pray with you all week long!
God bless you and keep you!!
Cathy Nolan
Mary TV
P.S. The “800 Club” campaign continues! The response has been electric! So many shipmates have already donated, joyfully!! It is very moving. Here is the response of one of our shipmates to our call for help:
From a California shipmate:
Hi Denis! This is a GREAT IDEA!! I love how the Holy Spirit works and this time through Tracy in Medjugorje! I am not able to donate $1,000 however, I have given a little bit… so what I have done is to send out emails to 27 people I know who I believe can donate and also, I have asked them to forward my email out to others!! I explained the situation and gave them your website (which many already have) and explained how to donate! This is a movement of the Holy Spirit, Praise God!!
Thank you to all of you, our dear shipmates!!
