(c)Mary TV/Anthony Zubac 2019
September 15, 2019
(Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows – except when it falls on Sunday)
33 Day Consecration – Day 12
Dear Family of Mary!
33 Day Prayer of Consecration to Our Lady of the Rosary – Day 12
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Receive our Consecration Prayer, O dearest Mother Mary!
“14. Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother.” (St. John Paul II – On the Rosary)
Except for Jesus, Himself, Our Lady is the best teacher of the life of a Christian, because she knows Jesus better than anyone else on earth. And so she comes to us in Medjugorje as our teacher, the one who knows our needs in these difficult days:
January 1, 1987 “Dear children! Today I wish to call on all of you that in the New Year you live the messages which I am giving you. Dear children, you know that for your sake I have remained a long time so I might teach you how to make progress on the way of holiness. Therefore, dear children, pray without ceasing and live the messages which I am giving you for I am doing it with great love toward God and toward you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Our Lady is with us to teach us the way of Holiness, as only she can. And so, she has given us the 5 stones, those 5 categories that best sum up the spiritual life as she sees it. These stones (which include the prayer of the Rosary) are very effective, if lived with the heart, in changing us, healing us and taking the log out of our eyes!! This homily, given in Medjugorje on Sept. 13, 2019, is perfect for us at this point in our consecration:
Bishop Kevin Doran (presiding) – Father John Delaney (preacher)
“You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearlyto remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)
So, in this gospel today, Jesus is telling us, we’ve all got a big wooden plank in our eyes. So, it isn’t surprising that we can’t see very well. And you might think that this sounds very strange. Well, here in Medjugorje, Our Lady is telling us: “Put God in the first place in your life.” And once we start to do that, everything then starts to make sense. And we can start to see how we can put our life in order. But before we do that, each one of us have got this big wooden plank in our eyes. And we can’t see things clearly. And it’s not until we start to try to put God in the first place that things start to come into order.
So, just as I was coming here from Manchester here to Medjugorje, I stayed with a couple who put me up near the airport. And the lady and her husband had been to Medjugorje something like 15 years ago. And the lady didn’t want to come here. She sort-of half wanted to come, and then she was sort of pushed into it by another lady who sort of persuaded her to come along. And when the first week she was here, she went to see Father Jozo. And lots of things happened. She did lots of things; everything you’re doing. And then she said, “I want to get that book, a book which explains the five stones they had been talking about here.” And strangely enough, a friend with her who went to Father Jozo’s, picked up a book and said, “Oh, it’s all about the five stones.” And then she started reading about these five stones, about what Our Lady is asking us to do.
And then she came back to England. And then some strange things started happening. She heard a voice saying, “Go to mass every day.” She heard an audible voice just behind her which told her to go to mass. So, she started working out how she could go to mass every day. Then she started praying the rosary. And she started trying to pray the three, you know, Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious mysteries. I’m sure she also decided then she was going to try and go to confession once a month. So, she was doing what Our Lady was asking of her.
And something similar happened to me. I came here about 1997, just a young fellow of 25. So, you can work out my age when you do your math. And just as I was leaving here that first time, I really felt the embrace of Our Lady; that She had really given me a great big hug. Also, she had given me the gift of praying the Rosary. Before I came here, the Rosary didn’t mean much to me. But she had given me that great gift of praying the Rosary. And also, she gave me a very simple lesson – that, when we think of the Annunciation, Mary comes before God, she answers the question of the Angel Gabriel, and she says, “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”
So, I felt that Our Lady gave me that gift, there’s some message where it says, “Don’t let your life be too complicated. Just hand yourself over to me, and I will sort everything out.” So that was the gift that I was given back there in 1997, to hand myself over to Our Lady, let her lead me; all the different problems, not to think them out, but to simply hand myself over to Our Lady. And particularly, by praying the Rosary, any problems that come along, hand myself over to Our Lady, start praying the Rosary to ask Our Lady to guide me.
And this is what Our Lady does. We have all got this big plank in our eyes; we don’t have to work out what it is, because we can’t see it. But we find, that if we do what Our Lady is asking of us, we will be able to put God in the first place in our lives. And then, without us even realizing it, we will start to begin to see clearly. We will be living in the Grace of God. And that’s what Our Lady is teaching us here: How to live in the Grace of God.
And so, we know, I’m sure you’ve heard about the five stones. About praying from the heart. About praying the Rosary. About starting to listen to Scripture; allowing the Scripture to take a place in our lives each day. Going to Holy Mass as often as we can. Going to Confession once a month. And fasting. So particularly on this day, Friday, we think about fasting. You may find it difficult to fast. But pray for the gift of fasting. And fasting helps us to get free of lots of addictions.
This lady that I told you about, when she did start to do these things, she started realizing she was watching a lot of television. She was watching a lot of soap operas. And then suddenly it came to her, all of these, a lot of these people in these soap operas, they’re committing sin. In this soap opera; in that one; in the other one. “Why am I watching all these people committing sin?” And so then, when she realized that, she stopped watching the soap operas.
So, it can be the same with us. When we start putting what Our Lady is asking us into practice, we will be enlightened about those things that we should be doing, and those things that we shouldn’t be doing.
(English Mass in Medjugorje – Friday, September 13, 2019 – Father John Delaney – preacher. https://marytv.tv/english-mass-in-medjugorje/ )
(English Mass in Medjugorje – Friday, September 13, 2019 – Father John Delaney – preacher. https://marytv.tv/english-mass-in-medjugorje/ )
We are so blessed to have such a Mother, who would come and stay with us this long, to teach us so patiently how to grow spiritually. We need to grow in these days. If we do not grow, we will remain blinded by the planks in our eyes and never help build up the Church or the Kingdom of Heaven.
Dearest Mother, may we live your 5 stones, so that we will become holy, and serve our brothers and sisters in the truth of Jesus and His Kingdom. Thank you for remaining with us this long to teach us the way.
Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary:
“O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”. (Blessed Bartolo Longo)
We commit ourselves to praying the Rosary for your intentions, dearest Mary, our Mother, as You enter this final battle with Satan, for the sake of souls. We will take up the Rosary as an obligation that we will fulfill with great joy! Together we will pray for Your Triumph over Satan, and for the coming of a New Time of Peace which has been given to us through You, Oh Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary!! Amen
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
Now we pray our Rosary for today! The Glorious Mysteries!!
“O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”. (Blessed Bartolo Longo)
We commit ourselves to praying the Rosary for your intentions, dearest Mary, our Mother, as You enter this final battle with Satan, for the sake of souls. We will take up the Rosary as an obligation that we will fulfill with great joy! Together we will pray for Your Triumph over Satan, and for the coming of a New Time of Peace which has been given to us through You, Oh Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary!! Amen
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
Now we pray our Rosary for today! The Glorious Mysteries!!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019
