Come and Be Filled
"Let us come to this Supper and be filled to satiety. And who have
come to this Supper except the beggars, the sick, the lame, and the
blind?
Let the beggars come, for he invites us who became poor for our sakes.
Let the sick come, for it is not the healthy who need a physician but
the sick. Let the blind come and say to him: "Give light to my eyes
lest I sleep in death.""
--St. Augustine--Sermon 112, 18
Prayer: O God, come to me in your kindness. For you are the good and
the beautiful, in whom, by whom, and through whom all things are good
and beautiful.
--St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 1
<<>><<>><<>>
March 25th - The Feast of the Annunciation
and the Incarnation of the Word
Texts of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort :
First text: “Those who undertake this holy slavery should have a
special devotion to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Word.
Indeed, the Incarnation is the mystery proper to this practice,
insomuch as it is a devotion inspired by the Holy Ghost:
1. First, to honor and imitate the ineffable dependence that God
the Son was pleased to have on Mary, for His Father’s glory and our salvation. This dependence appears in a particular way in this
mystery, where Our Lord Jesus Christ is a captive and a slave in the
bosom of the Most Holy Virgin, and depends on her for all things.
2. Second, to thank God for the incomparable graces He has given
Mary, and particularly for having chosen her to be His most worthy
Mother, which choice was made in this mystery.” (True Devotion to
Mary, Montfort Publications, 1975, p. 165).
Second text: “Time does not permit me to explain here the excellences
and grandeurs of the mystery of Jesus living in Mary, in other words,
the Incarnation of the Word. I will content myself to say these few
words. We have here the first mystery of Jesus Christ--the most
hidden, the most exalted, and the least known. It is in this mystery
that Jesus, in concert with Mary, has chosen all the elect. For this
reason, her womb is called by the saints aula sacramentorum, the room
of the secrets of God. From this mystery, He has wrought all the
subsequent mysteries of His life …. Hence, this mystery is the
summation of all mysteries and contains the will and grace of all.
Finally, this mystery is the throne of the mercy, the liberality, and
the glory of God.” (Ibid., p. 167)
Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)
The two texts here are co-related. 1st, St. Louis de Montfort affirms
that the mystery of Incarnation is par excellence the one to which the
true slaves of Our Lady should have devotion. 2nd, he sustains that
the mystery of the secret life of Jesus in Mary is a mystery that
contains all the others, that it was the point of departure for all
the wonders of His life.
Let us analyze the 1st part and then the 2nd.
The Treatise of True Devotion to Our Lady is, in my opinion, a
prophetic book with regard to what it states about the mysteries and
devotion to Our Lady. One sees that the profound things St. Louis de
Montfort says will be revealed as theology develops in the Reign of
Mary. Today, the meaning of his words cannot be fully comprehended.
For example, who can entirely understand his affirmation that Our Lord
was the slave of Our Lady during the time He lived in her? After the Annunciation and the fiat of Our Lady, Our Lord was made flesh in her
bosom. From that moment, He had a perfect knowledge of everything. He
was cloistered inside her, living in exclusive contact with her, in a
complete dependence on her, the most complete dependence a person can
have upon another.
The Word Incarnate, completely lucid from the first moment of His
being, chose to live this life inside another creature. It was by His
design He lived inside that temple, that palace, in a mysterious
relation with Our Lady. God manifested His omnipotence in the
Incarnation. He also manifested His power by maintaining Our Lady a
Virgin before, during, and after the parturition. Everything about the Incarnation is so extraordinary that He could have arranged for Our
Lord to be born just a short time after the conception. But He did not
do this. He chose to live the full nine months in her. He wanted to
establish that special form of dependence upon her. He chose to have
that profound and mysterious relations of soul with her. In short, He
wanted to be her slave. But a special kind of slave, because the
normal slave has his own life, he breathes on his own, he has freedom
of movement. What He wanted was more than this, it was to depend
entirely on Our Lady.
What kind of relation of souls was established during this period?
What type of union took place? It is an impenetrable matter. But just
to have a certain reference point, we should consider that in the
mystery of the Incarnation, Our Lord assumed a human nature, that is,
in addition to being true God, He also became true Man. That is, He
had soul and a body, as we do. He was a descendent of Adam and Eve
like us. But parallel to this, His human soul had--and has--a union
with God so close that Jesus Christ is part of the Holy Trinity. In
Jesus Christ there are not two persons, there is only one Person, even
though the human soul of Christ was created. How can a human soul
constitute one person with God? It is a mystery. Theology teaches us
that this is a hypostatic union, but it does not explain the mystery.
Considering His divine and human natures, how can one explain why Our
Lord cried out on the Cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned
Me?” At that moment, He continued to be God, but He chose to suffer in
His humanity a kind of abandonment and isolation that made Him feel in
His human nature a complete abandonment, even though He remained
united with God in His Divinity. Again, we have a mystery.
The union of Our Lord with Our Lady when He was in her womb is less
than, but similar to His hypostatic union. It is entirely
incomprehensible, but a day will come when light will fall on it for
mankind. I believe that in the Reign of Mary a theological explanation
will be made for the greater glory of God and the good of the souls.
There are still many unexplained mystical points regarding the union
that Our Lady has with each one of her slaves, which is incomparably
less than the divine mystery of her union with Our Lord. All these
mysteries follow the same line, but we do not know how to explain
them. What we can see, however, is that these mysteries take a
direction diametrically opposed to the Revolution in two of its
principal doctrines: Pantheism and Individualism.
According to Pantheism, everything is god; one thing has no essential distinction from another. Every creature is united with every other,
all making just one single person. Individualism asserts that each one
is himself alone and does not need to be united with anyone else....
See
http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j121sdAnnunciation_3-25.htm
Saint Quote:
The heart is rich when it is content, and it is always content when
its desires are fixed on God.
--Saint Miguel Febres Cordero Muñoz
<><><><>
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Against Heresy
O Powerful Virgin, who alone hast destroyed all heresies throughout
the world, deliver the Christian world from the snares of the devil,
and have compassion on the souls deceived by diabolical cunning, that
laying aside all heretical guilt, the hearts of the erring may be
converted and return to the unity of the Catholic Faith, through thy intercession with our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and
reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for
ever and ever. Amen.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)