A Month with Mary – Thirtieth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Presence of God

MARY: Wherever you turn, God sees you! Whether you ascend into the heavens, whether you sink into the abyss, God always sees you! He sees you, but his glance is infinite love because he is present to sustain your life, to help you, to fill you with the graces of which you yourself are not even aware.

God sees you, even more, in him you are and you move; this is a great mercy. You ought to exult in the thought of being always in the presence of your God and in the meantime you forget it completely.

You not only forget him, but you live as if God did not exist, even under his glance, with the strength which he gives you, with the freedom which he grants you, you offend him and you insult him! What an outrage and what black ingratitude!

God sees you and you ought to remember this in order to love him and to refer to his glory all that he grants you. You are his creature, his temple, you are like a living altar, and with what delicate reverence you ought to care for your spiritual cleanliness, the internal order of your soul, the blazing torch of your love which burns in the presence of God!

God sees you and what an ugly sight you present him of yourself! … Oh, if you could see yourself as he sees you! … You are like a house blackened with smoke, all full of soot, all full of debris and dirt … And yet you know that God dwells in your heart! Get your house in order, live with the Eucharistic Jesus, live from him so that the glance of God is detained with delight on his divine Son!

You complain all too often that you are alone in the world and aspire to heaven! And yet you are not alone: God is around you, and within you, and living with you! Love him, then, with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your strength. Walk in his presence and be perfect; live before him with the trust of a son, with the simplicity of a small child.

ASPIRATION: I adore you, my God, here present, and I thank you that you look upon me with so much love.

LITTLE WORK: Resolutely eliminate from your soul, from your books, from your effects, all that could offend the gaze of God.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

The 24th of December: Day 9 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

The 23rd of December: Day 8 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

The 21st of December: Day 6 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

The 22nd of December: Day 7 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

The 20th of December: Day 5 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

The 19th of December: Day 4 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

The 18th of December: Day 3 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

The 17th of December: Day 2 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

The 16th of December: Day 1 OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before...Continue reading→

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

Nearly 100 years ago, on December 10, 1925, a quiet miracle unfolded in the small Spanish city of Pontevedra. Sister Lucia, the last surviving seer of Fatima, was staying with the Dorothean Sisters when she received an extraordinary vision. Before her appeared the Blessed Virgin Mary, radiant and sorrowful, with the Child Jesus at her...Continue reading→

A Month with Mary – Twenty-ninth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Death

THE SOUL: I am full of life and it seems as if I will never have to die. Fantastic! I want earthly joys; however, without a doubt the day will also come for me when I will lie immobile and lifeless on my bed of pain and the scene of this world will forever disappear from me! … A few days of illness will prepare my last day … perhaps that day will also come upon me unexpectedly, maybe even violently … I don’t know. What I do know for certain is that this life will pass away and that I will find myself in the presence of God where I will give an account of everything, even of a vain or idle word!

What a terrible thing the moment of death will be for me: the body will weaken, oppressive anguish will take away my breath, memories of my life will upset me, the demon will assault me with great rage …

O Mary, my mother, will you come close to my bed of pain, will you soothe the terrible anguish of those moments? Oh, I await you because that hour will be too bitter for me when I remember nothing but the ingratitude and sins of my life!

The thought of death doesn’t have to be fruitless for me now that I still have time and can prepare myself for it from now on. I want to detach myself from all that can cause me suffering in death; I want to renounce all vanities; I want to live in a Christian way in order to have then a treasure of merits. Help me, O Mary, to live well so that I will not then be oppressed by my great responsibility.

MARY: My child, remember that Jesus has given you a treasure that should serve you precisely at death and it is the Holy Viaticum and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. When you realize that your life is declining, claim this Sacrament for yourself because it is too easy for the false and cruel compassion of your family members to deprive you of it. Live every day, then, as if you were to die and measure your desires and vanities against this thought. In this way death will find you prepared and you will draw your last breath in the Heart of Jesus and in mine and you will be safe forever.

ASPIRATION: From eternal death, deliver me, O Lord.

LITTLE WORK: Say a prayer for the dying.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-eighth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Goodness of God in Forgiveness

MARY: Do you want to give yourself an idea of the goodness of God and the hardness of creatures? Consider how God acts when he is offended and how men act! Oh how slight is human mercy, even non-existent! Man pretends to pardon, but in reality does nothing but treat his offender harshly while always remembering the offense. He forgives when he no longer feels the impact and the anger; he forgives with difficulty. Yet the offender is a being like him, perhaps better than him.

Look at how inflexible man is when he punishes: the guilty person repents, begs, weeps, but the law strikes him, obliterates him, deprives him of freedom and is not placated until he has paid in full.

God is infinite, he who offends him is a poor worm. The offense which he receives is incommensurable, yet God calls the sinner to his heart, he entices him with the most delicate expressions, he searches for him like a lost treasure, like a little lamb from his own fold, like a beloved son. If God wants him to confess his sin, it is for the benefit of the sinner, so that, by humiliating himself, he may feel free of his weight and deserve forgiveness and may look on this as a blessed right and not a humiliating concession.

God does not despise the sinner, he does not look on him with severity nor reprove him, but embraces him, enriches him with grace, reclothes him with the garments of justice, puts on the ring of sonship on his finger and prepares the solemn banquet of the Eucharist for him. One single sincere word of love, one single sigh of the soul is enough to reconcile him to God, even before mildly humbling himself before God’s minister.

It is true that adversities befall sinners, but it is not God who wills the punishment and death of the wicked, it is rather the wicked who brings the adversities and disasters upon himself … And even these serve God’s purpose to call the sinner to himself when he doesn’t listen to the voice of love. Oh how great is God’s mercy! And you are still unsure about him? Do you not know that he considers himself greatly offended by lack of trust precisely because he is infinite goodness? Throw yourself into his arms, then, weep at his feet. In him you will always find the most tender and loving of fathers.

ASPIRATION: Forgive me, O Jesus, and have mercy on me in your great mercy.

LITTLE WORK: Forgive the one who has offended you so that God will forgive you in the same measure.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-seventh Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Medicine of the Soul

THE SOUL: Even with so many means of sanctification and salvation, I recognize, unfortunately, that I am weak and empty. At the first occasions of sin I vacillate miserably and fall. Do I have recourse to Jesus in the Eucharist? But if my fall made me unworthy of him, that food of life becomes for me the condemnation to death!

Oh how good Jesus is! He has provided for my mortal infirmity and has given me the effective remedy to cleanse me from my iniquities: holy Confession. In the Eucharist he comes to me living and true, substantially, and makes himself my food and drink; in Confession instead he has himself represented by a man invested with his power so that I may have no reluctance to lay at his feet my abhorrent burden.

I kneel at the feet of that man, but it is always Jesus who receives me … it is Jesus who makes himself anew my Redeemer, who appears to me in human vesture, who takes pity on my weaknesses, who counsels me, comforts me, helps me, heals me. I am not afraid of his presence, and even if I find it repugnant to speak to a mortal man, he changes my repugnance into expiation and fills me with secret consolation.

O Jesus, do not allow me to render so great a Sacrament vain! So many times I have gone to Confession almost by rote; perhaps I tried to minimize my faults; I found so many excuses to avoid humiliating myself for them! O Mary, Mother of grace and of mercy, accompany me to the feet of the priest and grant that I may emerge renewed by this Sacrament of spiritual resurrection.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, give me the grace to confess well.

LITTLE WORK: Prod some soul whom you know to be in mortal sin to go to Confession.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-sixth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Transformation of the Soul

JESUS: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my Blood will have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day … He who feeds on me lives because of me … Your fathers ate the manna and died, but he who feeds on me will not die … I am the bread of life come down from heaven.”

Here are the words with which I prepared faithful souls for the great mystery of love; here is the meaning and the nature of this great Sacrament of life. The human soul in contact with mine becomes transformed; it becomes one with me; it lives because of me. It becomes transformed not by an instantaneous miracle, but gradually and precisely in the same manner that physical life is supplied with food.

Your soul, too, my child will be transformed into me; don’t be in a hurry to see yourself perfect all at once. The Eucharist does not burn sensibly; it was not instituted to give you superficial gratification, but to give you life. You must live from me, identify with me, abandon yourself to me and hence you must experience your emptiness, your nothingness, your inertia in profound humiliation.

Even material food is of itself effective in supplying life, even though it does not produce the same effects in each one. One eats and visibly grows because the body assimilates the food well. Another eats and with the nourishment comes the strength to avoid an illness, to prevent a collapse, to expel noxious or infected germs from the organism. To these food might seem unnecessary, but it is not so.

I will change you completely, but I will not do violence to your nature; I will penetrate into you gently and virtually without making you aware. Do not tire of me … always come to me; never stop seeking me because in me you will find life.

THE SOUL: O my Jesus, you know my misery well and you know that I am only nothingness! Here is my soul, I place it in your hands: you transform me!

Bread of life, give me the life that will reinvigorate me in you!

Bread of love, set me on fire with that love which annihilates in me what is mine and fills me with what is yours!

ASPIRATION: O Sacramental Jesus, transform me into yourself.

LITTLE WORK: Make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament to attest to your love for him.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-fifth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Eucharist

MARY: Jesus was not content merely to open to you the channels of grace with the Sacraments; he wished to give you himself so that you could live totally by him and in him. At the vigil of his sufferings he wished to leave you a perpetual reminder of love; he took some bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: “Take this and eat it, this is my Body.” Likewise he took the chalice with wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples saying: “Take and drink, this is my Blood.” From that moment the world possessed the greatest marvel: bread transubstantiated into his Body and wine transubstantiated into his Blood! With the Body and with the Blood are also the soul and the divinity, in such a way that when you eat of this bread of life, you receive the whole Jesus as he is now, glorious in heaven.

Jesus did not give himself to you in vain: he comes to you in order to incorporate you into himself, to give you his very life, to supply for your weakness, to sustain your soul. You should not, then, complain uselessly of being destitute of every virtue, but you must go to the banquet of life to be healed of your spiritual sicknesses. Jesus is not upset to see you cold when he sees you humble and constant … He is there precisely to warm your coldness. Don’t put obstacles before him, but offer yourself to him totally and rest in his goodness. Certainly your Communion will not remain fruitless when you go to Jesus with at least a humiliated heart, but you cannot always be aware of the fruitfulness of your Communion.

Alas! Your miseries are so many and you do not know them, but Jesus patiently eliminates a few of them each time. You are not aware of this secret work and you would just like to be conscious of sensible fervour and thus to please yourself. Thus you believe that your Communion is without fruit and that is not true! If Jesus gave you the relish and the fervour without first rooting love in you, you would be a barren soul, a fantasy flame! …

Entrust yourself to him, never back away from him. The more you are in his company, the sooner you will be filled with his life. Don’t satisfy yourself merely with receiving him; go to visit him, prostrate yourself before his glorious throne, implore his blessing, direct your thought to him during the day, desire him spiritually in your heart, pray, pray that he may reign in you.

ASPIRATION: O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!

LITTLE WORK: Make a Communion of reparation for one who is far from the Holy Eucharist.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-fourth Day

Published on: May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

A Canticle of Love

(According to the Spirituality of the Canticle of Canticles)

THE SOUL: O Jesus … the only desire of my soul, only good of my being, come!

With the sighs of my soul I call upon you because you are the only true beauty, come!

My beloved is snow-white as a lily, ruddy as a rose … his flowing disheveled hair attracts me … how beautiful you are, O beloved of my soul! … Come! …

Everything becomes a voice that calls me to you alone because where you pass you strew a thousand allurements of love! … You smiled upon creation and it became a delightful harmony that speaks of you … Come!

I am an exile and pilgrim in this vale of tears, but you have shown yourself to me as my all … come, O Jesus, yes, come!

My voice is weak, but I unite it to the concert of all creation; it becomes strong with your very merits … come, O my Spouse!

I went wandering the ways of the world, but couldn’t find you … I asked the sentries about you … but they only keep watch over little human miseries … I kept walking and walking and then in the solitude of the lilies I saw you!

What a vision of love! Your clothing was snow-white; around your head there was an aureole of glory and from your lips came a word of love! … How beautiful you are! …

My step is slight; I sigh for you with all of the impulse of my soul, come, O Jesus! My soul loves you, it loves you … it loves you, O infinite God because you are my only desire … Come! …

O don’t distract me from my Beloved, o little things of the earth; you are a fatuous light and I find in you only coldness and death! It is only my Jesus that I desire … Come, O Jesus! …

I want love in this poor soul of mine and you alone give it to me: come, O Jesus!

I desire sufferings because through the sufferings I will love you the more. The sufferings you send are only a path of charity; come, bring me the cross, come into my soul!

I love you, O my only true good! Please don’t gaze on me any more … the heart inflames me with love and then leaves me desolate and poor! I will then love you between the delightful beatings of my heart with a disinterested love … Come, O Jesus!

I love you, Jesus, and because I love you I desire only you!

Let the creatures torment me; they only drive me closer to you … Among the contradictions which they will cause me, you will hear all the better the voice of my love … Come! …

They despise me as inept and I really am because I am nothing but misery! But to my nothingness you are a support, you are peace, you are all because you are Jesus! … Come! …

Jesus, my Jesus, your little creature gets disturbed, but does little; you know me well … hence come to me and raise me up in your mercy … Come, O Jesus! …

Love, love, how delightful you are when you are born of that Heart of divine fire, of my Jesus! Look at me, O my Angels; Jesus has already bound me to him … My love, give me a kiss of mercy and of love! …

O Jesus, you have already come … O that I might die, then, in a cry of love … I love you! …

The bonds that bind us are sealed in your Blood … you will cast me away from you no more for you are too good! …

O Jesus, O Jesus, O my love … you alone! …

You are here in my heart! … you alone! …

You are king of my soul! … you alone! …

You are my peace! … you alone! …

You are all, O my love! … you alone! …

I no longer have the strength to speak … my Love! …

Praise God from the heavens; praise him, O Angels, praise him, all creatures; praise him, O Mary! … God alone! …

ASPIRATION: Long live Jesus! … Thank you, O Jesus, who live in my soul!

LITTLE WORK: Seek pardon of the person you have most offended or who has a grudge against you so that the aversion and upset do not block love.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-third Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Aspirations of the Heart

MARY: A soldier who wants to keep himself really faithful to his duty should not be one who serves under constraint; he should have an ideal toward which he aspires. In moments of danger in which it seems as if life is slipping away, in which he feels the full impact of the adversary, the soldier takes up his arms and at the outcry of his ideal, he musters all of his energy and wins.

Look for a moment at your heart, my child, and study it with regard to its supreme aspirations …

You gaze on me, your eyes contemplate the immaculate candour of my soul and you sense all the beauty of purity.

You see me in profound recollection; in my countenance you read the life of infinite Love which attracts me and you want to fly, fly, like a little bird that flutters anxiously when it sees the magnificent flight of its mother! …

You see me with downcast countenance … desolate from the bitter grief of Calvary. Expand your heart and cry out: Mother, grant me to weep with you!

You, therefore, must aspire to innocence, to the infinite, to the sacrifice which will lead you to these two harbors of true happiness!

I saw you so many times involved in worldly affairs, but you were not happy with them and you remember now with regret. As you advance in years, you perceive in life something more elevated than what appears … you want God! Nothing satisfies you; nothing consoles you; all of your castles in the air begin to crumble and collapse; you desire God! Only his charity convinces you; only his love satisfies you; only his friendship gives you peace!

Lift yourself up, then, in great purity of heart: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Jealously preserve the innocence which Jesus has given you back in the Baptism of his blood when he received the tears of your repentance and purified you. Flee the frivolous company of creatures because you will not find God in the hubbub of human affairs.

Recollect yourself in your nothingness because God only stoops down to holy humility, as he lowered himself even to me, because he looked upon me in my interior annihilation.

Don’t flee the cross, rather carry it willingly close to Jesus. It is the key of heaven; it is the door that introduces you into the kingdom of the eternal aspirations of your soul …

The little human things will soon pass away; they will fall into oblivion … I will garner you like a lily of the valleys to adorn the heavenly garden.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, may your kingdom come soon!

LITTLE WORK: Avoid saying useless words in order to maintain the holy recollection of the soul.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-second Day

Published on: May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Misery of Human Judgment

MARY: You are so afraid of human judgment and so many times you betray God in order not to contradict a poor creature, But what is man, what value has his scornful word or his threats? You fall with regard to human respect not only out of cowardice, but also because of self-interest and you dissemble or betray your faith for fear of being taken amiss by men.

But what is man? Is he perhaps the master or arbitrator of the world? Have you so little faith in the goodness and providence of God to believe that he abandons you when you endanger your own situation for love of him? How many times do you not try to win human benevolence by pretending to be without faith, impartial and free! …

Fool! in reality you do nothing then but entrust yourself to men of the earth who are deceitful, egotists and traitors! And are you not ashamed to put yourself in such a cowardly way under the most degraded and vile men of the earth? What is man in his judgments? The history of human knowledge tells you: man despises today what he applauded yesterday; he affirms and denies, he contradicts himself, lies or feels his way along in the darkness of doubt.

Who are they who discredit your faith? They are those who do not know it; weak and cowardly souls who are ironically called strong souls; impure people who don’t see the truth because their god is their belly, because they love pleasure and orgies of the passions. And you would fear the judgment of these poor unfortunates?

The wisdom of God on the contrary, like a brilliant star, rises ever alive and immortal in the midst of men and you must fear only the judgment of God. Don’t worry about men, then; they can’t do you any harm because God alone is the master of all. Fear God and trust in him with firm confidence. Do all that you are supposed to.

Even if accomplishing it should cost you your life, before you there have been millions of glorious martyrs who give you the example of the most perfect and Christian self-denial. The form of this world soon passes, illusions fall, sham human power comes tumbling down … blessed are you if you can present yourself in the sight of God clothed in his glory, cloaked in his justice and in his charity!

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, make me appreciate your greatness and despise the world.

LITTLE WORK: Rather than fear human judgment, seek to bring back to the faith with great charity those who despise it.

A Month with Mary

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 9

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 8

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 6

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 7

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2

ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 1

“You, at least, strive to console me.” – Time is Running Out to Respond to Our Lady’s Call

A Month with Mary – Twenty-first Day

Published on: May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by KOFPB

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Human Respect

MARY: Among the enemies you must fight against, my child, there is one which is small, wretched, foolish, but which can paralyze you. This enemy seems to be outside of you, but in reality is none other than yourself. Babies go near the mirror, look at themselves, get frightened at seeing a being that moves, become timid or want to play with it, but … that being which frightens them or fascinates them is none other than their own image.

You do the same when you allow yourself to be vanquished by human respect: it seems to you that the others assault you, that they are playing tricks on you, that they persecute you, but in reality it is you who are so weak in your faith that you believe that this can manage to cause you dishonour or damage. What a shame for you, who are so ennobled by the profession of your faith, to hide it or disparage such greatness for fear of stupid and vile raillery!

When you are seized by an idea, when you believe that something will glorify you, you don’t fear any jesting and, if they jeer at you, you not only don’t accept it, you disdain it.

Are you ashamed of elegant clothing because someone teases you? No, in fact you’re proud of it, you show it off because you are convinced that it is refined; if you were convinced of the contrary, you would be embarrassed to go out dressed like that and it would seem to you that you were the butt of everyone’s gossip. If, then, you are embarrassed to be seen as Christian, it is because in reality you are not, you don’t feel it, you don’t live it and your faith is like clothing that barely covers the miserable rags of the world that you haven’t yet thrown away!

But, tell me, isn’t Jesus your glory, your life, your strength? Are you not convinced that his wisdom vanquishes all human wisdom and that his principles are truth, justice and good? So why do you fear the evil eye of the world and fraternize with it?

In reality, my child, the world laughs at false piety and false faith; even while it fights against a Christian, the world admires him, and if it saw in you a real Christian, the world would not make fun of you. Children do not sneer at a lady who wears an elegant hat, they rather jeer at the lady who wears a hat while wearing a shabby, worn out dress. It’s the same for you.

But even if the world ridicules you, what’s that to you? Must the world judge you? What will you respond to the eternal Judge, if he protests that he will be ashamed of whoever is ashamed of him? So lift up your countenance from the abjection into which you have fallen. Remove from your life, from your thoughts, from your practices, from your words all that is not Christian and show before the world with deeds that you love and esteem God above all things.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, O Jesus, you alone above all things.

LITTLE WORK: If in conversation God is offended by complaining or worse by speaking badly of the faith, of the Pope, of priests, of one’s neighbour, intervene energetically and protest or break off the conversation and move away.

A Month with Mary