Not only the Mother of Mexico, but of all the Americas. Mary, Mother of God, your charity is strikingly shown forth in the Visitation. It was your duty to represent the whole of mankind and to offer those acts of adoration faith, hatred of sin, love and prayer, which were due from those who shared in this sacrifice. The dangers facing the Church and the world are grave and evil. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Online Saints & Angels Facts Feastday: December 12 Patron: of the Americas Author and Publisher - Catholic Online Printable Catholic Saints PDFs Shop Our Lady of Guadalupe An elder Mexican man makes his way to Mass in the early morning twilight of December 9, 1531. The moment of your exaltation, the highest to which God could raise a creature, finds you sunk in the abyss of your own nothingness. This is the very heart of your apostolate. Make me ever attentive to His inspirations that I may grow in holiness and may merit to see this Divine Guest of my soul in the glory of His heavenly kingdom. If the honor of parents descends upon their children, what glory and joy for all of us, your children, to see you raised to such heights of glory! You did not shrink from the disgrace of being recognized as the Mother of one condemned to die a shameful death. All those whose Queen you are have learnt of Jesus that they must call you Mother and ask your help. Today I am filled with joy at the thought that we are united with those first clients of yours, and in union with them we greet you, saying: O beauty of Carmel, glory of Libanus, purest of lilies, mystical rose in the flowering garden of the Church. Help me to sacrifice myself generously for the love of Godto abstain from those many hurtful things that prevent the union of my soul with God. In the hope that Life will triumph over death, from this moment and for ever more, we want to sing with you the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the Apostles' worldly views about the Kingdom of God on earth were banished by the Spirit of God, and holiness replaced their imperfections, but no-taint of the slightest sin had to be removed from your virginal soul. Our Lady of Compassion - roman-catholic-saints.com I am unworthy of that. I believe that all graces, all heavenly blessings descend from Jesusas from the Headby means of youas the neckto the body of the Church. Devotion to you brings with it sweetness and consolation for the soul. If I have been blessed with suffering, let me remember that this is the only way I can follow Jesus and you, for He said, "If any one wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt. To become the Mother of God meant for you a knowledge of and a share in the Passion of Christ that would plunge you into the depths of a sea of lonely desolation. You possessed, according to the words of the Archangel, such a fullness of grace that you were worthy to become the Mother of God. Give me a deep sorrow for my sins which have hurt God so very much. But that my devotion may be acceptable and my homage pleasing, let me endeavor to maintain within my soul, as much as possible the spotlessness of your purity and try to walk in your footsteps humbly and gently. Filled with grief, you saw how the disciples removed the nails from the Redeemer's hands and feet, extracted the thorns from His head, and took Him down from the cross. I want to turn to you in all my pressing needs and difficulties as to a most sure refuge, imploring the help of your protection, choosing you as my advocate, whole-heartedly entrusting my cause to you who are the Consoler of the Afflicted. I can never fully understand the depth of those sorrows that filled your heart as you begot us to the spiritual life, while standing by the cross on Calvary. Protect me from losing the Holy Spirit by sin. Thereby you sanctified all our afflictions and united them with those of Jesus. The feast day of Our Lady of Compassion is every 15th of September. Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows | Salt + Light Media You formed His feet, to search after and seek us as a Good Shepherd, His hands to heal us and to be pierced for us; and His shoulders to carry the cross. You saw in the cross an altar, in your Son a Priest, and in His Blood the price of our Redemption. But we, too, by our union with Jesus, and by the power of His grace, will also be united with Him in His victory over the devil. You are blessed because of the fullness of grace you received; blessed, because of the greatness of the mercy to be bestowed on you; blessed, because of the Majesty of the Person who was to take flesh of you; blessed, because of the glory which would become yours. Our eyes are upraised to you in sorrow and in joy. Mary, Mother of God, teach me to be truly humble. You are the Glory of Jerusalem; you are the Joy of Israel; you are the Honor of our people. 1. . Each event of the sorrowful drama of His sufferings was a sword that pierced your motherly heart. The more holy you are, the greater is your sweetness and compassion toward sinners who have recourse to you with the desire to amend their lives. Provide for our needs of soul and of body. Everything that God may send me, or permit in my life, whether favorable or unfavorable, sweet or bittereven illness, is acceptable to me, for I have resolved, after your example to conform myself to the Divine Will in all things. For the small sacrifice of being devoted to you I can obtain a happy death and eternal life. Mary, My Mother, I rejoice with you in the joyful expectation of your little Son. You are "Suppliant Omnipotence" because your prayer obtains all graces from the infinite treasures of God. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Mother of Perpetual Help because of the graces you have at your disposal. We ask you to procure for us, by your prayers the great grace of final perseverance so that those who are joined to honor you in the kingdom of your Son on earth may be together always in heaven. Being the new Eve who was to be the Mother of the new Adam you were, by the eternal decree of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. I give you my heart by the gift of a tender and childlike love, because you are my Mother and you love me more than my own mother could ever think of loving me. Feasts of Our Lady Throughout the Year January MONTH of the HOLY NAME 1. View the Flyer. Our Lady of Compassion - Roman Catholic Parish of Willesden Green Because of sanctifying grace infused into your soul, you were from the first moment of your existence most intimately united with God and endowed with the most precious gifts of heaven. For as often as I offended God by mortal sin, so often have I crucified the Son of God and made a mockery of Him. God freed His future messenger from original sin and enriched him with grace. Let us thank the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for giving us the best mother in the world, so beautiful, pure and spotless in body and soul, who loves each one of us with so great maternal concern and compassion. Mary, My Mother, as the Immaculate Conception, you are the Woman who appeared as the mortal enemy of the serpent. You brought forth Jesus, your First-born, without pain; but in giving birth to your second-born, what agony did you not have to endure? You are not only the Mother of the guilty but also Mother of Jesus, their Judge. As the heart of a mother triumphs over the just anger of a father in an earthly family so your Heart will triumph by averting the force of God's justice upon this sinful world. He follows up in my heart also the aim that brought Him into your wombHe wishes to be born in me, to grow, rule, and reveal Himself. How many souls have still to be brought under the rule of Christ the King! The foundation of this doctrine is to be found in Sacred Scripture where we are taught that God, the Creator of all things, after the sad fall of Adam, addressed the serpent in words which the Church applies to you, "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head" (Gen. 3.15). May they consider it to be the greatest privilege bestowed upon them by God to dedicate their sons and daughters to His holy service. Mary's Feast Days August - Our Lady's Rosary Makers Let me know nothing else except this entire surrender of myself to God, this simple childlike act of the heart, as I cast myself into the Arms of Jesus and promise Him my fidelity. If Jesus is Our Lord, so you are Our Lady. A woman, the tree, and death symbolize our defeat. By your Divine Motherhood you formed the closest bond of union with the adorable Trinity, the privileged Daughter of the Father, the loving Mother of the Son and the immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit. But you are Mother only of penitent sinners who have left their evil ways before death. In so doing I simply imitate God who gave Himself and His Son to us through you. May it be given me to understand your own love for me, and your dignity and beauty, that I may love you with a love more like the love that God Himself has for you. I can pray to you with full confidence because you are loved by the Father as the Mother of His Son, loved by the Son as His own Mother, loved by the Holy Spirit as His Immaculate Bride. 16, 24). Teach me to understand that personal consecration to you does not mean only to place myself under your special protection, but rather to live for God in union with you by avoiding every sin and practising virtue. Happy Feast Day Our Lady of Perpetual Help Feast day: June 27 Patroness If we could not say that you are the Mother of God for having given a body to the Son of God, then we could neither adore this Body; nor would we have been redeemed by the sacrifice of this Body on the cross, nor would we be united to the divinity in receiving this Body in the Eucharist. I wish to do penance by giving up sin and amending my life, by asking pardon and making reparation to the Heart of Jesus and to your Immaculate Heart, so grievously offended by our sins. Mary, My Mother, your apparition at Guadalupe as the Immaculate Conception is your only recorded appearance in North America. 55. . In becoming His Mother, you became ours. The bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its own glorious soul. Jesus belonged entirely to you, the holiest among women. pray for me! And for our sake, you were ready to devote this Child to a life of suffering, persecution, and scorn, even to a shameful death on the cross. The new birth of mankind was completed on Calvary. He preserved you from original sin and the sway of the devil; He filled you with grace. When the Holy Spirit descended, you received the richest outpouring of His graces. 2. Mary, My Mother, the angel said to you, "Blessed art thou among women." As you were the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus in all the virtues, you were the first and most perfect disciple also in humility. Sanctify them first, so that they may then more effectively sanctify others. Realizing that your consent had been made a necessary condition for the accomplishment of the great mystery of the Incarnation, you made the supreme act of obedience and faith when you said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word." You desire more to do good to me than I can desire to receive favors from you, for your Heart is all love and mercy. Teach me to imitate you by accepting willingly all the suffering which my service of God involves, my struggles against temptation, my difficult acts of virtue, my little penancesin union with the Victim Jesus on the altar out of love for God and mankind. Your birth was a miracle of the power of God because both of your parents were far advanced in years. Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Feast Day February 27. In your greater sorrow may my own be lost, and in calm resignation may my anguished soul find peace and strength. You are a human creature, but free from even the slightest sin or guilt, and absolutely pure by reason of the singular excellence of your nature. The words of the prophet are applied to you: "O all you that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be sorrow like unto my sorrow.". You are kind and loving for you have a mother's heart, full of pity for the erring. The supernatural life is the life of Jesus in us through grace. Help me to love God with my whole strengthso that I may consecrate undividedly, unreservedly and continually to His service, my life, my health and all I am and have. I should learn from your conduct never to oppose the divine will, even though conformity to it may mean a severe test of my faith. Feast, October 16 (Triduum, October 13-15). You used most perfectly every actual grace given you by God in acts and virtue. It also means unlimited confidence in your motherly intercession if I should have the misfortune of straying from Jesus by sin. There is no more intimate bodily union than that of mother and child, for they are one life, one heart-beat sustaining the life of both. The reredos is in gold relief, being copied from work in the chapel of the Duchess of Newcastle. Clothe me with your own humility. Your fear arose entirely from your humility, which was disturbed at the sound of praises so far exceeding your own lowly estimate of yourself. 1. Mary, My Mother, you associated yourself with the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus in order that you might share in His glorification. His mother named him after the great St. Francis of Assisi. we celebrated the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. 2. Because you were full of God's grace and a Virgin most pure, Gabriel could exclaim, "You have found grace with God." Be merciful to us. Since you have had such an intimate share in my redemption, I entrust my soul to your loving care. Since I sincerely love you, I want to follow your example; this is the greatest honor I can pay you. I may address myself to the saints for favors of various kinds, but my prayer must always pass through your hands if it is to reach the throne of grace and draw down the divine blessing. I plead for these sinners and I beg you to help them to break their chains, to shake off their human respect, to hope in the mercy of your Son. Little by little the links between your body and soul were dissolved by the resistless force of love. 'Teach me that the test of my following of your Divine Son is practical charity. You formed His lips, to teach us. From the knowledge of the Will of God you gathered the strength that was to uphold you at the foot of the Cross on which your Son hung, dying. Help me to love God with my whole soulso that all the faculties of my soul may be consecrated to Him, and that I may make use of them only to make Him known, loved and served. All the tsars were crowned and patriarchs installed in the presence of this image, up until the revolution. "The Lord is with thee." From the moment of His entering the world, your loving Son Jesus, was the price of our salvation. Don Luis de VelascoII, when he was Viceroy of New Spain, had as his confessor a Dominican, Fray Cristobal de Ortega, who also acted as his financial adviser. The pangs of this childbirth were the sufferings you felt on Calvary. Dec. 12: OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE MASS PRAYERS AND PROPER READINGS. Each time Jesus becomes present in the hands of the priest, the Life given to us by the words of consecration comes originally from. 1. You would have shown your grief as mothers do by sobs and tears. You are pure and sinless. I fix my gaze on that star and wish never to turn from it. Give me your good counsel, so that following it humbly I may ever please God, find true happiness on this earth and eternal life in the world to come. We have the sublime dignity of being children of God by adoption; Jesus alone is His Son by nature. All good things come to us through your hands. As the seed of the serpent includes all those descendants of the first man and woman who by their sinful lives bear within them the traits of the devil, so, too, the seed of the Woman includes all who in the course of ages will take their stand with your Son, Jesus Christ, in His ceaseless conflict with the enemy of God. You are a Model easy to imitate because you sanctified yourself in the ordinary, everyday life common to most of us by fulfilling those lowly household duties of a young woman a mother and by leading a hidden, retired life both in joy and in sorrow. Wherefore the Church applies to you the words Jesus spoke of that other Mary who sat at His sacred feet, drinking in the words of divine wisdom flowing from His blessed lips: "Mary has chosen the best part, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10, 42). From all eternity God chose you to be His Mother that those who could not be saved according to the rigor of divine justice, might be saved with the help of your sweet mercy and powerful intercession. Teach parents to care for their children as God's sacred trust, to guard them from sin and to lead them in the way of virtue. You often discussed the coming of the Messias, since you knew He would be of your race and family. Your Heart remained spotless as a lily, and you are, therefore, justly called the "Queen of Virgins. Feast of Our Lady of Compassion - Friday, 3 April, 2020. By granting them these graces you have performed a work of the apostolate. These mysteries remind me also of your own glory, the Assumption of your soul and body into heaven and your crowning there as Queen of Heaven and Earth. And yet, in the whole work of the redemption, your Son wanted to associate you with Himself. Only childlike humility entitles me to the first place in God's estimation and consequently, in heaven also. Your Son, though He was Life itself, did not exempt Himself from death. Although it is true that Jesus in glory, by means of His divine wounds, is our intercessor before the Father and all God's gifts come to us through His merits, you are the all-powerful suppliant, through whom every prayer reaches up to Him and every grace comes down. He also found joy in His Divine Sonship and glorious human nature, joy in His intellect, with its immeasurable knowledge and the contemplation of God; joy in His will, with its freedom, sinlessness, holiness and unbounded power joy in His destiny as our Redeemer; joy in the future kingdom of His Church, which was to arise from His life and death. Thus an angel appeared to Joseph and said, "Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. All your privileges increased your power to love God. In 1482 the feast was added to the Missal under the title of "Our Lady of Compassion." Pope Benedict XIII added it to the Roman Calendar in 1727 on the Friday before Palm Sunday. 3. 2. You are the immaculate Virgin whom the Son Himself chose to make His Mother. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Comforter of the Afflicted because in your lifetime you bore every sort of affliction and you can now sympathize with me in my sufferings. Recipes for September ~ Month Dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows - Blogger Amen. On this occasion you bore your share of the penalty allotted to woman: "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.". You were not bound by the Law, because you were a virgin as well as a mother. The Holy Spirit, who in virtue of your Son's merits lived in you, made you a living image of Jesus. 2. Your Child, becoming the King of Martyrs, would make you their Queen. It is the will of God that His aid should reach me through your heart, because you are my Mother, and motherliness means willingness to help. I consecrate myself entirely to your Immaculate Heart. You express your wishes to God, those wishes which have to do with our needsneeds of body and needs of soul. Your soul is the creation and the masterpiece of almighty workmanship. Feast, September 8 (Novena, Aug. 30-Sept. 7). Since you had your place beside Jesus when there was question of ransoming us and meriting for us all the graces necessary for our salvation, you must in like manner have your place beside Him now, when there is question of securing for us by your prayers in heaven the graces prepared for us in view of the merits of Christ. Your heart sank each time He fell beneath its weight. Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mary, Mother of God, I turn to you in all my pressing needs and difficulties as to a most sure refuge. The Eternal Father unfolded His Omnipotence in order to form in you a heart full of sweetness and obedience to your Creator. Mary, My Mother, who crushed the head of the serpent, I pray for my country. Through your prayers be always my powerful helper. Your faith taught you that the predictions of both were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrates 491 years Robin Bradshaw , Hearst Dec. 12, 2022 Comments This is an image of a Spanish Baroque altar located inside of the Monastery of Santo. We celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th. No wonder the angels were lost in admiration! Your soul contained all the marvels of God's grace, for which reason the Church calls you the Singular Vessel of Devotion. All that God could give, He bestowed on you. Mary, Mother of God, God spoke of you as the Woman who would crush the serpent's head. You are the throne of divine mercy in whom we find solace of mercy. St. Brigid of Kildare Feast Day - Our Lady of Compassion | Facebook This is truly your spirit, as you expressed it at the Visitation: "Behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed: because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name" (Luke 1, 48). After the prophecy of Simeon, the Scriptures mention that "His father and mother" were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him. Mary, My Mother, How perfectly you have followed the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and acted on divine wisdom! I will not be discouraged, but rather go with confidence to you, the throne of grace. This was your spiritual Motherhood. This love for you was the source of great joy in the hearts of the saints. With the Father you, too, can say: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.". The title "Our Lady of Sorrows" focuses on Mary's intense suffering during the passion and death of Christ. In your six apparitions at Fatima you made repeated demands for penance and reparation. Therefore, with childlike confidence I appeal to your motherly Heart for help. I am in need of forgiveness of sin, of strength in temptation. Through your prayers and the prayers of your holy parents may I learn to know and love you more and ever remain your faithful child. Through your prayers you will obtain forgiveness for my past negligence. When you later returned to your home, you were under the loving care of your mother, Saint Anne. By your Motherhood you acquired a mother's power over your Divine Son, and you saw yourself raised above all the angels and saints. In every struggle l am sure to find in you both help and consolation because you are the Mediatrix between sinners and your Divine Son. We do not attribute to you the power of producing supernatural grace, even though you are the Mother of God, for this power belongs to God alone. Preserve their faith, assailed at every hour by the forces opposed to Christ. You know all our needsneeds of body and needs of soulinfinitely better than a mother. Through your all powerful prayers, obtain for me not only God's forgiveness, but also the grace to amend my life and to save my soul. Mary, My Mother, give me a rich share in the graces merited for me by your Son. Jesus was a Son to you and a sword to you: a Son on your breast, a sword in your heart. You visited the house of Zachary to serve your cousin Elizabeth for three months. They are God's servants, but you are His Mother. Help me to share actively in Holy Mass by sharing in your spirit. You show your compassion toward all so that there is no one in this world who does not, if he seeks it, share in the kindness and mercy of your motherly Heart.