Our Risen Lord made His first resurrection appearance to His most Blessed Mother. This Easter, we have asked "What is the foundation of the Christian Religion?" It is Christ, His Mission, and His Church. Understanding this answer helps us love our Catholic Faith and live it well. Five simple points from the resurrection narratives in the gospel help us summarize this answer.
Father shares three true stories to encourage you to be more devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He exhorts you to place greater confidence in her and never tire in taking your prayers to her. These stories – Our Lady of Montserrat, St. Joan of Arc, and The Bouquet from 1857 – also provide an example for mothers (and children). He concludes with twelve simple ways to practice devotion to Mary (in honor of the twelve stars of her crown).
He hears these words, again and again, echoed in the hearts of each soul He encounters. He asks the same question. Some questions transcend the human mind and experience. Christi will not speak and answer, He will only act. This is the only question that matters.
In the past liturgical year, how many sermons have we heard, and what have we actually put into practice? How do I most offend the Heart of Christ? Periodically, we have to take time to evaluate our spiritual progress. Will I actually hold myself accountable for the things which God is unceasingly asking me to stop doing?
Holy Mother Church teaches us perseverance; not so much in words, but more so in her prayers, her sacraments, her disciplines, and her saints. The Catholic life, including every vocation, requires perseverance. If you pray with a sincere and pure heart – and persevere – you will receive. A great failure by many is they simply don’t persevere or their prayers are imbued with a worldly spirit. So pray with ever greater devotion and an ever purer heart. May Our Lady be our model and great intercessor.
Motherhood is so important, that in the order of grace, God gives us two mothers: His own Mother and the Church. The world devalues motherhood because it is so lost. Resist this temptation. Look to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be your model. Pray that the Holy Ghost will shape your heart after hers. Three recommendations: [1] Our Lady never ceases praying and offering sacrifices for us her children. Imitate her. [2] Live and teach the virtues opposite the great vices of heresy, blasphemy and impurity. [3] Feed and nourish you children spiritually. Bring them to the Holy Eucharist.
Motherhood is under a terrible attack by the diabolical errors or Russia. Using typology we can look to the Ark of the Covenant (Our Blessed Mother) for eight points which help heal the wound in woman caused by Eve. These points of reflection include teaching, correcting, compassion, chastity, modesty, self-effacement, and others. Dear Mothers, know and take up your place, mirroring the Ark of the Covenant: to raise up saints to help the Church in this time of need. You may not be known in this world but many will say of your children, 'You must have had a good mother."
No matter how old we are, we owe devotion to our mothers for all they have done in forming and loving us. One must also have devotion to Our Lady. We all owe her our very salvation. Unlike with the saints, devotion to Our Lady is NECESSARy for salvation. Without her we would not have the Mass, the Church, nor salvation in Jesus Christ, true God and man. She is a most tender Mother and worthy Queen. May we confidently entrust to her all things that are ours; our joys, our troubles, our hopes—especially as more difficult times fall upon the [...]
Christ is present and lives in the Most Holy Eucharist. Under the impulse of His divine Love, He ceaselessly renews His Sacrifice. This Sacrament is the very soul of the Church. From this source the Church draws and has all her strength. From the rising to the setting of the sun, there should be no cessation of the Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving [the Mass] which man owes to God. Indeed, man's chief duty and supreme dignity is to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice. This is all Catholic teaching from the popes. Listen to it with faith, begging our Lord to [...]
As many times as we have said YES to temptation, to doing something not in the law of true liberty established by God, we have to undo it later with a NO, perhaps even fourfold times. Habitual sin, evil behavior, proximity to temptation and vice all have to be undone by their virtuous opposites. Each sin is like loading a crate onto a heavy truck. The more a truck weighs, the harder it is to bring it to a stop and reverse direction. All the times we spoke ill of another, drank too much, took a second look... God will allow [...]
