10/11 Feast of the Divine Maternity of Our Lady

For a reflection on the Feast of the Divine Maternity of Our Lady
visit Feast of the Divine Maternity of Mary:

 

Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The celebration on  this day throughout the Western church of a feast in honour of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was enjoined by Pope Pius XI in the  encyclical “Lux veritatis“, published on December 25, 1931, in view of  the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus.

 

In the third lesson of the second nocturn of the office of the new feast mention is made of the arch in the basilica of St. Mary Major,  which Pope St. Sixtus III (432-440) decorated with mosaics shortly after the  council, and which has been restored in modern times by the care of Pius XI himself. This, we are taught, remains as a stricking monument of the  proclamation of our Lady’s incomparable honour as Mother of God. But in the  institution of the present festival, the pope, as his encyclical explains, had also other objects in view.

 

“One thing in particular”, he says, “and that indeed one of great importance, we specially desire that all should pray for, under the  auspices of our heavenly Queen. That is, that she, who is loved and venerated  with such ardent piety by the separated Christians of the East, would not suffer them to wander and be unhappily led further away from the unity of the Church,  and therefore from her Son, whose vicar on earth We are. May they return to the  common Father, whose judgement all the fathers of the synod of Ephesus most  dutifully received, and whom they all saluted with concordant acclamations as  the guardian of the faith; may they all return to Us, who have indeed a fatherly affection for them all, and who gladly make our own those most loving words  which Cyril used, when he earnestly exhorted Nestorius that ‘the peace of the  churches may be preserved, and that the bond of love and of concord among the  priests of God may remain indissoluble’.”

 

Encyclical, Lux veritatis, in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis,
vol. xxiii (1931)

 

The Divine Maternity of Our Lady (Trad)
(Click here for more information)

The Divine Maternity of Our Lady (Trad) was instituted in 1931 by Pope Pius XI in view of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus. At the same time the Pope ordered at his own cost the restoration of the Marian mosaics in Saint Mary Major, much decayed through age. He issued an encyclical letter, “Lux Veritatis.” In this, among the objects of the new festival, is named one Truth that was particularly close to the heart of Pius XI, “…that Mary, Who is loved and revered so warmly by the separated Christians of the East, would not Suffer them to wander and be unhappily led further away from the unity of the Church, and therefore from her Son, Whose vicar on earth we are.”

 

From the book The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will
Our Lady to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will:

Lesson of the Queen of Heaven

Day Five
Daughter (Luisa) most dear to Me, oh! how I yearn to confide My secrets to My daughter; secrets which will give Me much Glory, and that will Glorify that Divine Fiat which was the primary cause of My Immaculate Conception, of My Sanctity, Sovereignty and MaternityI owe everything to the Fiat—I know nothing else.  All of My sublime prerogatives for which the Holy Church so much honors Me, are nothing other than the effects of that Divine Will which dominated Me, reigned and lived in Me.
This is why I yearn so much that that which produced in Me so many privileges and admirable effects as to astonish Heaven and earth, be known.

Day Twenty
My dear daughter (Luisa), today I await you more than ever. My maternal Heart is swollen; I feel the need to pour out My ardent love with My daughter: I want to say to you that I am the Mother of Jesus. My joys are infinite; seas of happiness inundate Me. I can say: I am the Mother of Jesus; His creature, His handmaid, is Mother of Jesus—and I owe this only to the Fiat. It rendered Me full of grace, It prepared the worthy dwelling for My Creator. Therefore, always glory, honor and thanksgiving be to the Supreme Fiat.

Now listen to Me, daughter of My Heart (Luisa): as soon as the little Humanity of Jesus was formed in My womb by the power of the Divine Fiat, the Sun of the Eternal Word incarnated Himself in It. I had My Heaven, formed by the Fiat, all studded with most refulgent stars which glittered with joys, beatitudes, harmonies of Divine beauty; and the Sun of the Eternal Word, blazing with inaccessible light, came to take His place within this Heaven, hidden in His little Humanity. And since His little Humanity could not contain Him, the center of this Sun remained in It, but Its light overflowed outside, and investing Heaven and earth, It reached every heart. And with Its pounding of light, It knocked at each creature, and with voices of penetrating light, It said to them:
My children, open to Me (Jesus); give Me a place in your heart. I have descended from Heaven to earth in order to form My Life in each one of you. My Mother is the center in which I reside, and all My children will be the circumference, in which I want to form so many of My Lives for as many as are My children.” And the light knocked and knocked again, without ever ceasing; and the little Humanity of Jesus moaned, cried, agonized, and within that light which reached into the hearts, He made flow His tears, His moans and His pangs of love and of sorrow.

Now, you must know that a new life began for your Mama. I was aware of everything that My Son was doing. I saw Him devoured by seas of flames of love; each one of His heartbeats, breaths and pains, were seas of love that He unleashed, enveloping all creatures to make them His own by force of love and of sorrow. In fact, you must know that as His little Humanity was conceived, He conceived all the pains He was to suffer, up to the last day of His life.  He enclosed all souls within Himself, because, as God, no one could escape Him.  His immensity enclosed all creatures, His all-seeingness made them all present to Him.  Therefore, My Jesus, My Son, felt the weight and the burden of all the sins of each creature.  And I, your Mama, followed Him in everything,
and felt within My maternal Heart the new generation of the pains of My Jesus, and the new generation of all the souls whom, as Mother, together with Jesus I was to generate to grace, to light, to the new life which My dear Son came to bring upon earth.

My daughter, you must know that from the moment I was conceived, I loved you as Mother, I felt you in My Heart, I burned with love for you, but I did not understand why. The Divine Fiat made Me do facts, but kept the secret hidden from Me. But as He incarnated Himself, He revealed the secret to Me, and I comprehended the fecundity of My Maternity—that I was to be not only Mother of Jesus, but Mother of all; and this Maternity was to be formed on the stake of sorrow and of love. My daughter, how much I have loved you, and I love you.

Now listen to Me, dear daughter—what extent one can reach when the Divine Will takes operating life in the creature, and the human will lets It work without impeding Its step. This Fiat, which by nature possesses the generative virtue, generates all goods in the creature; It renders her fecund, giving her maternity over all, over all goods, and over He who created her. Maternity says and means true love, heroic love, love that is content with dying to give life to the one it has generated. If this is not there, the word maternity is sterile, is empty, and is reduced to words, but does not exist with facts. Therefore, if you (Luisa), My daughter, want the generation of all goods, let the Fiat take operating life in you, which will give you the maternity, and you will love everyone with love of mother. And I, your Mama, will teach you how to fecundate in you this maternity, all Holy and Divine.

10/5 Feast Day of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska

On October 5, 1938 Sister Faustina (Helen Kowalska)
died in a convent of the
Congregation of Sisters of 
Our Lady of Mercy in Cracow, Poland

More information about St. Faustina can be found by clicking here

In fulfillment of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta’s prayer (see following excerpts from the “Book of Heaven”), the following year on August 25, 1905, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, an apostle of Divine Mercy, was born.

Book of Heaven
The Call of the Creature to the Order, the Place and the Purpose

for which He was Created by God

The Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will:

Volume 6 – April 16, 1904
Jesus and God the Father speak about Mercy.

 Continuing in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, and I saw a multitude of people, and in their midst one could hear noises of bombs and gun shots.  People were dropping dead or wounded, and those who were left would flee up to a palace nearby; but the enemies would go up there and kill them, more surely than those who remained outside.

So I said to myself:  How I (Luisa) wish I could see whether the Lord is there in the midst of these people, so as to say to Him:  “Have mercy – pity on these poor people!”  So I went round and round and I saw Him as a little Child; but little by
little He kept growing, until He reached the perfect age.  I drew near Him and I said:  “Amiable Lord, don’t You see the tragedy that is happening?  You don’t want to make use of mercy anymore?  Do You perhaps want to keep this attribute as useless, which has always glorified your Incarnate Divinity with so much honor, forming a special crown on Your august head, and bejeweling You with a second crown, so wanted and loved by You – which is souls?

Now, while I was saying this, He told me:  “Enough, enough, do not go any further; you want to speak of Mercy, and what about Justice – what are we going to do with It?
I have told you and I repeat to you:  ‘It is necessary that Justice follow Its course’.”

So I replied:  “There is no remedy – why then leave me on this earth when I can no longer placate You and suffer in the place of my neighbor?  Since it is so, it is better
if You let me die.”

At that moment I saw another person behind the shoulders of blessed Jesus, and He told me, almost making a sign with His eyes:  “Present yourself to My Father and see what He tells you.”

I (Luisa) presented myself (to God the Father), all trembling, and as soon as He saw me, He told me:  “Why have you come to Me?”

And I (Luisa):  “Adorable Goodness, infinite Mercy, knowing that You are Mercy Itself, I have come to ask for your Mercy – Mercy on your very images, Mercy on the works created by You; Mercy on nothing else but your creatures themselves.”

And He (God the Father) said to me (Luisa):  “So, it is Mercy that you want.  But if you want true Mercy, after Justice has poured Itself out It will produce abundant fruits of Mercy.”

Not knowing what else to say, I (Luisa) said:  “Father, infinitely Holy, when servants or people in need present themselves before their masters or rich people, if these are good, even if they do not give everything that is necessary for them, they always give something.  And to me, who have had the good of presenting myself before You, absolute Master, rich without limit, infinite Goodness, don’t You want to give anything of what this poor little one has asked of You?  Does a master perhaps not remain more honored and content when he gives, than when he denies what is necessary to his servants?”

After a moment of silence He (God the Father) added:  “For love of you, instead of doing ten, I will do five.”

Having said this, They disappeared, and in several places of the earth, especially of Europe, I saw wars, civil wars and revolutions multiply.

 

Volume 6 – June 20, 1904
Victim souls are the daughters of Mercy.

After I struggled very much, blessed Jesus came for just a little and told me:  “My daughter, human perfidy has reached such a point as to exhaust My Mercy on its part.
But My goodness is so great as to constitute daughters of Mercy, so that on the part of creatures also, this attribute may not be exhaustedThese are the victims who are in full ownership of the Divine Will, having destroyed their own.  In fact, in these souls, the container given by Me in creating them is in full vigor, and since they have
received the particle of My Mercy, being daughters, they administer it to others
.  It is understood, however, that in order to be able to administer the particle of My Mercy to others, they themselves must be in Justice.”

And I:  “Lord, who can ever be in Justice?”

And He:  “One who does not commit grave sins and abstains from committing the slightest venial sins of his own will.”

A depiction of St. Faustina Kowalska and Jesus,
who entrusted His message of Divine Mercy to the Polish nun,
hangs at at the Vatican at the canonization Mass for St. Faustina, April 30, 2000
(Photo from Catholic Press Photo)

10/1 Feast Day of St. Therese of Lisieux

Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Virgin, Doctor of the Church

Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Virgin, Doctor of the Church

More information on St. Therese of Lisieux can be found at the websites:
Click here or here or here

The Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will
(Note the Holy Card of St. Therese at the foot of the Crucifix)
St. Therese of Lisieux was a favored Saint
of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will–

St Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us!
“I will spend my heaven doing good upon the earth. I will let fall a shower of roses”

From St Therese of Lisieux’s Autobiography “The Story of a Soul“:

Therese Martin was the last of nine children born to Louis and Zelie Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. However, only five of these children lived to reach adulthood. Precocious and sensitive, Therese needed much attention. Her mother died when she was 4 years old. As a result, her father and sisters babied young Therese. She had a spirit that wanted everything.

At the age of 14, on Christmas Eve in 1886, Therese had a conversion that transformed her life. From then on, her powerful energy and sensitive spirit were turned toward love, instead of keeping herself happy. At 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God. She took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. Through sickness and dark nights of doubt and fear, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: “My God, I love You!”

The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, “Story of a Soul”. She described her life as a “little way of spiritual childhood.” She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God’s love. “What matters in life,” she wrote, “is not great deeds, but great love.” Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese’s spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love.

Therese saw the seasons as reflecting the seasons of God’s love affair with us. She loved flowers and saw herself as the “little flower of Jesus,” who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God’s garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title “little flower” remained with St. Therese.

Her inspiration and powerful presence from heaven touched many people very quickly. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925. Had she lived, she would have been only 52 years old when she was declared a Saint.

“My mission – to make God loved – will begin after my death,” she said. “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses.” Roses have been described and experienced as Saint Therese’s signature. Countless millions have been touched by her intercession and imitate her “little way.” She has been acclaimed “the greatest saint of modern times.” In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church – the only Doctor of his pontificate – in tribute to the powerful way her spirituality has influenced people all over the world.

Two excerpts from the Book of Heaven – Volume One, the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will writes:

… Then He (Jesus) continued: “I have made great designs upon you (Luisa), as long as you correspond to Me – I want to make of you a perfect image of Me, from the moment I was born up to my death. I (Jesus) Myself will teach you (Luisa), little by little, how to do it.” …

… “Lord”, I (Luisa) said to Him (Jesus), “I lack everything – I have nothing”
And He (Jesus) said to me (Luisa): “Do not fear, little by little we will do everything. I Myself know how weak you are, but it is from Me that you must draw strength.”

As well as from the other Volumes of the Book of Heaven:

Volume 2 – September 5, 1899
This morning I found myself in such disheartenment and I saw myself so bad, that I
myself rendered myself unbearable. When Jesus came, I told Him of my pains and
the miserable state in which I was, and He said to me: “My daughter, do not
want to lose heart. It is my usual way to operate perfection little by little,
and not everything in one instant, so that, in seeing that she is always lacking
something, the soul may push herself and make all efforts in order to reach
what she lacks, to please Me more and to sanctify herself more. …

Volume 3 – January 1, 1900
… Oh, how sorry I felt for Him!  I felt absorbed in that bitterness; and the blessed little Baby, compassionating my miserable state, told me:  “The more the soul
humiliates herself and knows herself, the closer she draws to the truth; and
being in the truth, she tries to push herself along the path of virtues, from
which she sees herself very far away.  And if she sees herself on the path
of virtues, immediately she realizes how much there is left for her to do,
because virtues have no end – they are infinite, as I am.  So, being in
the truth, the soul always tries to perfect herself, but she will never arrive
at seeing herself perfect.  And this serves her, and it will make her work
continuously, striving to perfect herself more, without wasting time in
idleness.  And I, pleased with this work, keep retouching her little by little, in
order to portray My likeness in her.

Volume 3 – August 1, 1900
… Placing himself before My Humanity, which spreads temperate rays of the Divinity, man has the good of being able to Purify, Sanctity and even Divinize himself in My very Deified Humanity.
Therefore, you – remain always before My Humanity, keeping it as a mirror through which you will clean all of your stains; not only this, but as a mirror through which, by reflecting yourself in it, you will acquire beauty, and little by little you will keep adorning yourself in My own likeness.  …

Volume 10 – November 29, 1910
Since a good and holy priest was coming, I was a little bit anxious to speak with him, especially about my current state, in order to know the Divine Will. Now, after he came the first and the second time, I saw that nothing would be done of what I wanted. So, having received Holy Communion, all afflicted, I was repeating my great affliction to my affectionate Jesus, saying to Him: “My Life, my Good and my All, it shows that You alone are everything for me. I have never found in any creature, as good and holy as he might be, a word, a comfort, a solution for the slightest doubt of mine. It shows how there is to be no one for me, but You alone: You alone – the All for me, and I alone, alone – always alone for You. And so I abandon myself in You, completely and always. As bad as I am, have the goodness of holding me in your arms, without leaving me for one single instant.”
While I was saying this, my blessed Jesus made Himself seen looking in my interior, turning everything upside down to see if there was something which He did not like. And while turning and turning, He (Jesus) took something like a grain of white sand in His hands, and He threw it to the ground. Then He said to me: “Dearest daughter of Mine, it is absolutely right that for one who is all for Me, I be all for her. I am too jealous that someone else might give her the slightest comfort. I alone – I Myself alone want to make up for all, and in everything. What is it that afflicts you? What do you want? I do everything to make you content. Do you see that white grain that I removed from you? It was nothing but a little bit of anxiety, for you wanted to know My Will from others. I removed it from you and I threw it on the ground so as to leave you in holy indifference – the way I want you. And now I will tell you what My Will is: I want Mass and also Communion; as for whether or not you must wait for the priest to come round, you will be indifferent to this. If you feel dozy, you will not try to come round; and if you feel awake, you will not try to doze off. However, know that I want you always ready, and always at your post of victim, even if you should not always suffer. I want you like the soldiers in the battle field: even if the act of fighting is not continuous they remain with their weapons ready, and if necessary, seated in the quarters, so that every time the enemy tries to start the fight, they may always be ready to defeat him. The same for you, My daughter: you will remain always ready, always at your post, so that every time I should want to make You suffer either for My relief or to hold back chastisements, or for anything else, I may find you always ready. I do not have to always call you, or dispose you to the sacrifice each time; but rather, you will consider yourself as being always called, even if I should not always keep you in the act of suffering. So, we have understood each other, haven’t we? Be tranquil, and fear nothing.”

This is very similar to what the “Little Flower” St. Therese of Lisieux wrote in her journal called “The Story of a Soul””: “
Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I (St. Therese) will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.

After St. Therese’s death in 1897 her Sisters sent 2,000 copies of Therese’’s writings to other convents. By 1910 St. Therese’’s writings would be well know by the Religious in Luisa’’s hometown. It was also in 1910, while visiting the Trani Diocese to establish an orphanage, Saint Annibale Di Francia met Luisa Piccarreta for the first time, most likely at the suggestion of her confessor, Fr. Gennaro Di Gennaro. Soon thereafter, Saint Annibale found himself at the center of a loose association of priests who shared a common thirst for holiness and a deep admiration for Luisa. Members of the group included Father Gennaro Braccale, S.J.; Father Eustacchio Montemuro, founder of the Sisters of the Divine Side; and Father Ferdinando Cento, who later became a Cardinal.