“The greatest saints, those richest in grace and virtue will be the most assiduous in praying to the most Blessed Virgin, looking up to her as the perfect model to imitate and as a powerful helper to assist them.”
St Louis Marie de Montfort
“Be not discouraged, but have recourse to Mary in all you necessities. Call her to your assistance, for such is the divine Will that she should help in every kind of need.”
St Basil the Great
“Mary, give me your Heart: so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate; your Heart so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life and love Him as you love Him and serve Him in the distressing guise of the poor.”
Mother Teresa
“In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear.”
“Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide.”
“Let your prayer for temporal blessings be strictly limited to things absolutely necessary.”
“Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love in order that I may love.”
“Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, Thou fount of life, thou Light of men, From the best bliss that earth imparts We turn unfilled to Thee again. We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still: We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead, And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. O Jesus, ever with us stay, Make all our moments calm and bright; Chase the dark night of sin away, Shed o’er the world Thy holy light.”
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Beloved Young People and Dear Friends in Christ,
Today the Church finds herself, with Mary, on the threshold of the house of Zechariah in Ain–Karim. With new life stirring within her, the Virgin of Nazareth hastened there, immediately after the Fiat of the Annunciation, to be of help to her cousin Elizabeth.
It was Elizabeth who first recognized the “great things” which God was doing in Mary. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth marvelled that the mother of her Lord should come to her (Cfr. Luc 1,43). With deep insight into the mystery, she declared: “Blest is she who believed that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled” ( Luc 1,45). With her soul full of humble gratitude to God, Mary replied with a hymn of praise: ” God who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name” ( Luc 1,49).
On this Feast the Church celebrates the culmination of the “great things” which God has done in Mary: her glorious Assumption into Heaven. And throughout the Church the same hymn of thanksgiving, the “Magnificat”, rings out as it did for the first time at Ain–Karim: All generations call you blessed (Cfr. Luc 1,48).
The Liturgy presents you, Mary, as the Woman clothed with the sun (Cfr. Apoc 12,1). But you are even more splendidly clothed with that Divine Light which can become the Life of all those created in the image and likeness of God himself: “this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Io 1,4-5).
O woman clothed with the sun, the youth of the world greet you with so much love … Your spirit rejoices, O Mary, and our spirit rejoices with you because the Mighty One has done great things for you and for us, – for all these young people gathered here in Denver, for all of us, for all the young people of the world, for all the young people, this generation, the future generation. The Mighty One has done great things for you, Mary, and for us. For you and for us, for us with you. The Mighty One – and holy is his name!
His mercy is from age to age.
From a Homily of Pope Saint John Paul II
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Almighty, ever-living God, you have taken the mother of your Son, the immaculate Virgin Mary, body and soul into the glory where you dwell. Keep our hearts set on heaven so that, with her, we may share in your glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,(one) God, for ever and ever.
“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it”
“The Immaculate will conquer, through us, the whole world and every single soul.”
“But grace, for ourselves and for others, is obtained by humble prayer, by mortification, and by fidelity in the accomplishment of our own ordinary duties, including the simplest ones.”
“For Jesus Christ I am prepared to suffer still more.”
Love Him totally, who gave Himself totally for you
Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.
Our labor here is brief, but the reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes like a shadow. Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.
Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.
For by doing what God demands of us with total surrender of our innermost being, we cause the divine life to become our own inner life. Entering into ourselves, we find God in our own selves.
God Himself teaches us to go forward with our hand in His by means of the Church’s liturgy.
“On the question of relating to our fellowman — our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love.”
