We go to Jesus and return to him through Mary. The insistent prayer to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, is based on the confidence that her maternal intercession can do everything before the Sacred Heart of the Son. She is omnipotent by grace.
Some time ago Pope Saint John Paul IIin Redemptoris Mater wrote about Our Lady's intercession and pointed out that she "freely cooperated in the work of the salvation of humanity, in profound and constant harmony with her divine Son".
Omnes cum Petro ad Iesum per Mariam!
All, with Peter, to Jesus through Mary!St. JosemarĆa EscrivĆ”.
From this cooperation "derives the gift of universal spiritual motherhood: associated with Christ in the work of Redemption, which includes the spiritual regeneration of humanity, she becomes the Mother of men reborn to a new life".
It is the Virgin Mary who "guides the Church's faith towards an ever deeper acceptance of the Word of God, sustaining its hope, encouraging charity and fraternal communion, and fostering apostolic dynamism.
God wanted to unite "to the priestly intercession of the Redeemer the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary. It is a function that she exercises for the benefit of those who are in danger and in need of temporal favors and, above all, of eternal salvation".
The titles with which we Christians address Our Lady when we recite the litanies that accompany the prayer of the Holy Rosary, "help us to better understand the nature of her intervention in the life of the Church and of each of the faithful". St. John Paul II.
As Advocate, she defends her children and protects them from harm caused by their own faults. Christians invoke our Mother as Helper, recognizing her maternal love that sees the needs of her children and is ready to intervene to help them, especially when eternal salvation is at stake.
She receives the title of Help because she is close to those who suffer or find themselves in situations of grave danger. And as a maternal Mediatrix, she presents to Christ our desires, our petitions and transmits to us the divine gifts, interceding continually on our behalf.
"Mother! -call her loudly, loudly. -She hears you, sees you in danger perhaps, and offers you, your Holy Mother Mary, with the Grace of her Son, the consolation of her lap, the tenderness of her caresses: and you will find yourself comforted for the new struggle." St. JosemarĆa EscrivĆ”, The Way, No. 516.
Mary did not want to draw attention to herself. She lived on earth with her gaze fixed on Jesus and the Heavenly Father. Her most intense desire is to make everyone's gaze converge in the same direction from the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary to the Sacred Heart of her son Jesus. He wants to promote a look of faith and hope in the Savior sent to us by the Father. With this gaze of faith and hope, he urges the Church and believers to always fulfill the will of the Father, which Christ has manifested to us.
From the Homily on our Lady delivered by St. JosemarĆa EscrivĆ” on October 11, 1964, and included in the book Friends of God. "Now, instead, in the scandal of the Sacrifice of the Cross, Holy Mary was present, listening with sadness to Those who passed by blasphemed, shaking their heads and crying out, "You who tear down the temple of God and in three days rebuild it, save yourself; if you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross.Our Lady listened to the words of her Son, joining in his pain: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?.
What could she do? Fuse herself with the redeeming love of her Son, offer to the Father the immense pain - like a sharp sword - that pierced his pure Heart.
Once again Jesus is comforted by the discreet and loving presence of his Mother. Mary does not cry out, she does not run from one side to the other. StabatShe is standing next to the Son. It is then that Jesus looks at her, and then looks at John. And he exclaims: Woman, behold your son. Then he says to the disciple: there you have your Mother.. In John, Christ entrusts to his Mother all men and especially his disciples: those who were to believe in him.
Felix guilt"Happy fault, sings the Church, happy fault, because she has achieved to have such a great Redeemer. Happy fault, we can also add, that we have merited to receive Holy Mary as our Mother. We are already sure, nothing should worry us anymore: because Our Lady, crowned Queen of heaven and earth, is the omnipotence supplicant before God. Jesus can deny nothing to Mary, nor can He deny anything to us, children of His own Mother (Friends of God, 288).
Mary was intimately united to her sacrifice, a sacrifice that involved continuing to keep things in her heart. The 7 Sorrows of the VirginThe moments in the life of the Virgin Mary where she was united to Jesus in a particular and unique way. This allowed her to share the depth of her Son's sorrow and the love of his sacrifice.
"Do whatever He tells you." John 2:5. It is John who recounts the scene at Cana. He is the only evangelist who has recorded this trait of maternal solicitude. St. John wants to remind us that the Virgin was present at the beginning of the Lord's public life.
This shows us that he knew how to deepen the importance of the presence of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, which is always present. Jesus knew to whom he entrusted his Mother: to a disciple who had loved her, who had learned to love her as his own mother and was able to understand her.
Among creatures, no one knows Jesus better than Our Lady, no one like his Mother can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery.
Leo XIII, in an Encyclical on the Rosary, says: "By the express will of God, no good is granted to us except through Mary; and as no one can come to the Father except through the Son, so generally no one can come to Jesus except through Mary".
"She cooperated with her charity so that the faithful might be born in the Church, members of that head, of which she is indeed mother according to the body," St. Augustine, De sancta virginitate, 6.
St. Luke, the evangelist who narrated the infancy of Jesus at the greatest length. It seems as if he wanted us to understand that, just as Mary played a leading role in the Incarnation of the Word, in an analogous way she was also present at the origins of the Church, which is the Body of Christ.
From the first moment of the Church's life, all Christians who have sought God's love, that love which is revealed to us and made flesh in Jesus Christ, have encountered Our Lady, and have experienced her maternal solicitude in many different ways.
Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, Prelate of Opus Dei, in 1987, in Toshi.
"Jesus is a way that is passable, open to all. The Virgin Mary today shows us, shows us the way: Let us follow her! And you, Holy Mother of God, accompany us with your protection, Amen", Benedict XVI, Homily of 01/02/2012.
As prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo in 1987 spoke about the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin Mary when he traveled to the island of Toshi, off the coast of Toba in Japan.
"You see the power of our Mother's intercession. When she asks, her Son God cannot say no, he says yes. She is the good little Mother of God and God says yes to his good little Mother. And this good little Mother of God is also a good little Mother, who always listens to us, who hears us and listens to us. And that is why, when we are in trouble, when we are in pain, when we are in sorrow, it is convenient to turn to the Blessed Virgin so that she, who can do everything, may intercede with her Son".
As good children we must love our Heavenly Mother every day; we know that She is a gift from Jesus, and God gives us the Immaculate Heart of Mary for our salvation, to bring us closer to Him.
And to ask for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, from the earliest times of the Church, it was already prayed: "Under your protection we take refuge, Holy Mother of God: do not despise the supplications that we address to you in our needs, but deliver us always from all dangers, glorious and blessed Virgin".
On May 12, 2010, during his pilgrimage to the Shrine of FƔtima, the Pope Benedict XVI He said a prayer before the image of the Virgin Mary in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, with which he consecrated the priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
"Immaculate Mother, in this place of grace, summoned by the love of your Son Jesus, High and Eternal Priest, we, sons in the Son and his priests, consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart, to faithfully fulfill the will of the Father.
We are aware that, without Jesus, we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5) and that, only through Him, with Him and in Him, will we be instruments of salvation for the world.
Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the priceless gift of transformation into Christ. By the same power of the Spirit who, spreading his shadow over you, made you the Mother of the Savior, help us so that Christ, your Son, may also be born in us. And in this way may the Church be renewed by holy priests, transfigured by the grace of Him who makes all things new.
Mother of Mercy, it was your Son Jesus who called us to be like Him: light of the world and salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14). Help us, through your powerful intercession, not to undervalue this sublime vocation, not to give in to our selfishness, nor to the flatteries of the world, nor to the temptations of the Evil One.
Preserve us with your purity, protect us with your humility and surround us with your maternal love, which is reflected in so many souls consecrated to you and who are for us authentic spiritual mothers.
Mother of the Church, we priests want to be shepherds who do not feed themselves, but who give themselves to God for their brothers and sisters, finding happiness in this. We want to repeat humbly every day, not only in word but also in life, our "here I am".
Guided by you, we want to be Apostles of Divine Mercy, filled with the joy of being able to celebrate daily the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and to offer to all who ask us the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Advocate and Mediatrix of grace, you who are united to the one universal mediation of Christ, ask God for us a completely renewed heart that loves God with all its strength and serves humanity as you did. Repeat to the Lord that efficacious word of yours: "they have no wine left" (Jn 2:3), so that the Father and the Son may pour out upon us, as a new effusion, the Holy Spirit.
Filled with admiration and gratitude for your constant presence among us, in the name of all priests, I too would like to exclaim: "Who am I that the Mother of my Lord should visit me? (Lk 1:43) Our Mother for ever, do not tire of "visiting" us, consoling us, sustaining us. Come to our aid and deliver us from all the dangers that beset us.
With this act of offering and consecration, we want to welcome you in a deeper and more radical way, forever and totally, in our human and priestly existence. May your presence make the desert of our solitude green and the sun shine in our darkness, may it make the calm return after the storm, so that every man may see the salvation of the Lord, who has the name and the face of Jesus, reflected in our hearts, united forever to yours. So be it.
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