One of the biggest issues I had when coming back to the Church was the devotion to Mary. I thought, wrongly, that it deprived from the love given to Christ. I thought to myself, why do I have to go to Mary to get to Jesus? When reading the Word I came upon these verses. "And he [Jesus] went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart." --Luke 2:15 In a remarkable display of humility, Jesus, allows himself to be directed and guided by his mother. He obeys her and spends the next part of his life hidden with her and Joseph. This verse also shows why devotion to St. Joseph is also beneficial, but I digress. Our purpose in this life is to be so united to Christ that he lives through us. How are we going to do that if we refuse to imitate him in his humility? How are we going to imitate him if we don't love his mother as he loved her? Why go to Mary? Because Christ did and because he willed us to do so! It was so important it was one of his dying words on the Cross! "When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home."--John 19:26-27 Then I thought why would I be scandalized by this? Christ is still the only mediator with the Father, but he didn't say there wouldn't be mediators between us and Jesus. Don't I have to go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter, Paul, and Jude to received the Word? When I wasn't Catholic I had to ask myself that. Why do I say I can go direclty to God as my big 'gotcha' to Catholics but I don't do that when I want to receive the Word. Why would I need the Bible? Couldn't I go directly to God without having to go to, oh say, John to receive God's Word? It's like I was saying one thing and doing another. Anyway, May 15th is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows and one of the many promises of devotion to the Seven Sorrows is to overcome addiction. PROMISES OF OUR LADY TO THOSE WHO PRAY THE SEVEN SORROWS ROSARY! TO SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN (1303-1373) ”I will grant peace to their families." ”They will be enlightened about the divine Mysteries." ”I will console them in their pains and will accompany them in their work." ”I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls." ”I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives." ”I will visibly help them at the moment of their death-- they will see the face of their mother." ”I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy. TO MARIE CLAIRE OF KIBEHO, RWANDA (1961-1994) With the recitation of the Seven Sorrows Rosary, the hardest hearts shall change, if you pray it for yourself or for others. By the recitation of the Seven Sorrows Rosary, you shall be freed from obsessions and addictions. hh This rosary when said from the heart, it will win us true repentance of our sins and free our souls from guilt and remorse. Those who say it often, especially as re-commended by Our Lady to Marie Claire, on Tuesdays and Fridays, shall obtain clear understanding of their weaknesses and flaws causing them to sin and those things we don’t like about ourselves and thought were a part of our character, shall change. You shall obtain whatever you ask for through this rosary, praying this rosary from the heart. More than ever, the world needs the Seven Sorrows Rosary. HOW TO PRAY THE SEVEN SORROWS ROSARY You can find information on how to pray the Seven Sorrows here: https://hallow.com/blog/7-sorrows/ Here is a great video of the rosary. Another great video of the rosary. Here is a great video on Our Lady of Sorrows. It's only Part 1. There will be a part 2 released soon according to the content creator. So...this is my challenge for May, to meditate with Mary on our Lord's Passion. To walk with her in her Sorrows. To ask for the grace to suffer with, through, and for Love. How can I be Christ's brother if I do not have the same mother? How can I be an adopted son without the same family the Son of God had?
Day 2. Second day completed. I thought of a couple of verses. Mary doesn't detract from Christ, she magnifies Him! Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. --Luke 1; 46-49 One of my favorite Old Testament books is that of Judith. I think Judith is a prefigure of Mary and her role of being guardian of the people of God. "Blessed art thou by thy God in every tabernacle of Jacob, for in every nation which shall hear thy name, the God of Israel shall be magnified on occasion of thee." -- Judith 13:31 When we honor Mary we magnify God's goodness. Mary will cut the head of the demons who are trying to destroy us, like how Judith cut off the head of Holofernes.
Nice one @Ghost️. I am also going to start praying the Rosary again myself. I was praying it a lot during Lent but let it slip away. I am committing to praying it for the month of May but will start tonight. I also struggled with the role of Mary so relate to everything your posts. I understand it more now and it makes sense. Thanks for everything you are sharing here! God bless you. Pray for us O Holy Mother of God.
Day 3. Inspired by a post about trusting in ourselves on this forum, I read a great article by Fr. Nnamdi Moneme on why a distrust of self is actually the correct way to approach life in all things. I know from my experience that trusting in myself is what brought me to addiction, as trusting in oneself brings pride - the root of all sin and vice. Humility is the Way. Trust in God Always and in All Things FR. NNAMDI MONEME, OMV Lorenzo Scupoli said that in the spiritual life we must have distrust in self and complete trust in God. He describes this distrust in self in this way: “Although in our selves we are nothing, we are too apt to overestimate our own ability and to conclude falsely that we are of some importance.” We cannot have trust in ourselves, our strengths, our knowledge and abilities, our intentions and ideas, and still trust in God at the same time. In addition, the quality of our distrust in self determines the quality of our trust in God. When we do not have this distrust in ourselves, then we settle for a convenient trust in God. This means that we choose the things and times in which we will trust in God and the things and times in which we will trust in ourselves. We thus trust in Him only when it is convenient to do so. We do not trust in Him when things become inconvenient or when unfavorable or challenging outcomes are imminent. In short, we refuse to trust in God always and in everything. Jeremiah 17:5-8 highlights the terrible consequences of such a convenient trust in God that comes from trusting in ourselves, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in his flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Our hearts turn away from God when we trust in ourselves. Consequently, we cannot receive from Him all the good things that He wants to give to us. The self-trusting person, who trusts God only conveniently, becomes spiritually lifeless and hopeless like a “barren bush in the desert.” Such a person cannot experience any growth or inner renewal because he is like a tree that “enjoys no change of season.” The person also cannot be spiritually nourished and fruitful because he is like a tree that “stands in a lava waste.” Such a person will have numerous excuses for not being spiritually fruitful. On the other hand, those who trust in God and not in themselves are able to receive inner renewal, encouragement, strength, and fruitfulness from God. They are like trees “with roots stretching out to the streams,” “they do not fear the heat when it comes,” “their leaves stay green, and they bear fruit even in the time of drought.” No external or internal condition prevents them from being spiritually fruitful and renewed. One of the priceless gifts that God offers to us and which only those who trust in Him while distrusting themselves can ever enjoy is the gift of His own happiness. The truth is that God wants us to be truly happy more than we even desire to be happy. But the happiness that God desires for us is a happiness in Him and through Him and not in ourselves or in any other creatures. In Jesus Christ, God is offering to us His own happiness now and in the life to come. Jesus invitees us to share in His truly happy life through the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor…Blessed are you who are hungry now…Blessed are you who weep now…Blessed are you when people hate you.” These Beatitudes are the attitudes of Jesus and He embodies them all perfectly. In themselves, there is nothing good or praiseworthy in being poor, hungry, weeping, or hated by others. However, these are situations and conditions wherein God invites us to distrust ourselves more, trust in Him completely, turn our hearts to Him, and receive from Him the things that lead to true happiness. We are invited in those moments to let go of self-trust and share in divine happiness through complete trust in God. We thus have a duty to cultivate this distrust of self. We must do so if we are going to move beyond trusting God only conveniently and enjoy the enduring and fulfilling happiness that God is offering to us. These are some steps in cultivating this distrust of self: Firstly, we must meditate on the word of God always, “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night.”(Ps 1) The more we ponder the words of scripture, the more we realize and accept our nothingness before God’s majesty. As we also realize His undying love for us through His words, we begin to distrust ourselves more and trust in Him more. Secondly, we must beg God sincerely for this gift of complete self-distrust. He alone can deliver us from the illusion of trusting in ourselves. True self-distrust is not something psychological but the fruit of prayer from a heart that is honest before God of its tendencies to trust in itself. Thirdly, we must cultivate a grateful heart. When we sincerely thank God for whatever goodness that we see in ourselves, we grow in that conviction that God gave it to us and He alone sustains it in us. We thus distrust ourselves more and depend on Him more to maintain His gifts in us. Fourthly, we must examine ourselves on our past failures. Don’t these failures show us how we tend to trust in our strengths and holy resolves? We are so much like St. Peter who so trusted in himself that he boasted, “Even if everyone falls away, I will never fall away.”(Mk 14:29) We all know how that ended! We can also see our own patterns of self-trust behind all our failures and accept those failures as God’s gentle invitations to distrust ourselves the more so that we can trust in Him more. Fifthly, we must seek to live by faith and not by our feelings. Our life of faith diminishes when we trust in our feelings so much and let our feelings dictate our choices in life. We cannot live in faith and trust in God while giving free reign to every emotion and feeling. To distrust ourselves, we must allow our faith in God to be our guide in all things, no matter how we may feel. Sixthly, we must also be wary of human praise, “Woe to you when all speak well of you.”(LK 6:26) The praises and accolades that we receive from others bolsters our trust in self to the point that we fail to credit the working of divine grace in us for every single good that we do. Lastly, let us cultivate a true and filial devotion to the Mother of God. She will teach us to be like little children who have no basis for self-trust. Mary had an unconditional trust in God whether it was convenient for her or not. She trusted Him in all things and always. She is the first human person to renounce completely any trust in herself in order to trust in God completely and receive the gift of God Himself in her womb, “How can this be since I have no husband?…The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”(Lk 114-15) She trusted Him in trivial things like begging Him for wine at Cana as well as in dark moments of watching Him die on the cross on Calvary. We practice true self-distrust in our spiritual life when we approach Jesus through Mary and with Mary. Because of the hope given to us in baptism, we can trust in God as He deserves in all things and in all aspects of our lives. The only thing that hinders us from this complete trust in God is our continued trust in ourselves. It is this trust in self that keeps our trust in God purely convenient with disastrous consequences. Every Eucharist is an increase in hope and thus a greater ability to trust in God. Our God comes to fill with amazing blessings those who trust in Him completely and distrust themselves completely. Let us begin today to distrust ourselves the more so that our hearts will be turned towards Him in trustful expectation ready to receive the beautiful things that He wants to give to us, especially His own happiness. Glory to Jesus! Honor to Mary! ✠ https://catholicexchange.com/trust-in-god-always-and-in-all-things/
Day 8 completed. Didn't say the devotion on day 6 and only did half way on day 7, but I'm determined to finish the month.
