MAY 12 Saturday
FEAST OF MARY QUEEN OF APOSTLES
21 He rose, took the child and his
mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus
was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go back there. And
because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee.
To Joseph the gift of dreams and visions was given
but to some is giving the gift of tongues. To which many years ago (40 to be
exact February 1975) at the birth of my first born daughter I had gone to the
Gunpowder Inn, in Bermuda, to celebrate her birth, with a couple
of Native American friends. At the time I was in the Navy Seabees and we worked
together.
When I had got there, all of the sudden, I got an
overwhelming feeling that I needed to speak in tongues to P. Graves and I did.
I felt stupid and fearful but I spoke to him in languages I knew not and used
sign, too. He told me I used 800 year old languages that only a handful
of people knew. The simple message from Christ was that he (P. Graves) who was
the last living war chief of the Blackfoot tribe was not to assume his
chieftainship and to let his son become chief or otherwise there would be much
blood.
I never heard from P. Graves again after 1974 but as
far as I know; no Blackfoot, has participated in any Wounded Knee violence.
Wounded
Knee: Trouble Continues At Pine Ridge
“The
troubles at Wounded Knee were not over after the siege. A virtual civil war
broke out between the opposing Indian factions on the Pine Ridge reservation,
and a series of beatings, shootings and murders left more than 100 Indians
dead. When two FBI agents were killed in a 1975 gunfight, the agency raided the
reservation and arrested AIM leader Leonard Peltier for the crime. The FBI
crackdown coupled with AIM’s own excesses ended its influence at Pine Ridge. In
1977, Peltier was convicted of killing the two FBI agents and sentenced to life
in prison. To this day, Peltier’s supporters continue to maintain his innocence
and seek a presidential pardon for him.”[1]
The
feast of the Queen of Apostles was established on the first Saturday after the
Ascension by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at the request of the Pallottine
Fathers. Mary initiated her mission as Queen of Apostles in the Cenacle. She
gathered the apostles together, comforted them, and assisted them in prayer.
Together with them she hoped, desired and prayed; with them her petitions were
heeded and she received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Mary
is Queen of Apostles because she was chosen to be the Mother of Jesus Christ
and to give him to the world; she was made the apostles' Mother and our own by
our Savior on the cross. She was with the apostles while awaiting the descent
of the Holy Spirit, obtaining for them the abundance of supernatural graces
they received on Pentecost. The most holy Virgin was and always will be the
wellspring for every apostolate.
·
She
exercised a universal apostolate, one so vast that it embraced all others. The
apostolate of prayer, the apostolate of good example, the apostolate of
suffering--Mary fulfilled them all. Other people have practiced certain
teachings of the Gospel; Mary lived them all. Mary is full of grace, and we
draw from her abundance.
·
Mary
attracts the zealous to the various apostolates, then protects and defends all
these works. She sheds on each the warmth of her love and the light of her
countenance. She presented Jesus in a manner unparalleled throughout the ages.
Her apostolate is of the highest degree--never to be equaled, much less
surpassed.
·
Mary
gave Jesus to the world and with Jesus came every other blessing. Thus, because
of Mary we have the Church: "Mary is the Mother of the Church not only
because she is the Mother of Christ and his most intimate associate in 'the new
economy when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that he might in the
mysteries of his flesh free man from sin,' but also because 'she shines forth
to the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues' (Lumen
Gentium. 55, 65).
·
She
now continues to fulfill from heaven her maternal function as the cooperator in
the birth and development of the divine life in the individual souls of the
redeemed" (The Great Sign, by Paul VI). What do we have of value that we
have not received through Mary? It is God's will that every blessing should
come to us through her.
·
Because
the Blessed Mother occupies a most important position in God's plan of
salvation, all humanity should pay homage to her. Whoever spreads devotion to
the Queen of Apostles is an apostolic benefactor of the human race, because
devotion to Mary is a treasure. Blessed is the person who possesses this treasure!
Mary's devotees will never be without grace; in any danger, in every
circumstance they will always have the means to obtain every grace from God.
Mary - Mother of
Christ, Mother of the Church[3]
963 Since the Virgin Mary's
role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now
to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary. . .
is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the
redeemer. . . . She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ’. . .
since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in
the Church, who are members of its head.""Mary, Mother of Christ,
Mother of the Church."
Mary's Motherhood
With Regard To the Church
Wholly united with her Son. . .
964 Mary's role in the Church
is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it.
"This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made
manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death";504 it
is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus
the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully
persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in
keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity
of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and
lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given,
by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with
these words: "Woman, behold your son."
965 After her Son's Ascension,
Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." In her
association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her
prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in
the Annunciation."
. . .
also in her Assumption
966 "Finally the
Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the
course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into
heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she
might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror
of sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular
participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection
of other Christians:
In
giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the
world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived
the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
. . .
She is our Mother in the order of grace
967 By her complete adherence
to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of
the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity.
Thus she is a "preeminent and. . . Wholly unique member of the
Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" of the
Church.
968 Her role in relation to the
Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way
she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the
Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a
mother to us in the order of grace."
969 "This motherhood of
Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she
loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering
beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to
heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold
intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .
. . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the
titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
970 "Mary's function as
mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ,
but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men
. . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ,
rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from
it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate
Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various
ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is
radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of
the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source."
Devotion
to the Blessed Virgin
971 "All generations will
call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is
intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the
Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed
Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection
the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . . . This very
special devotion . . . differs essentially from the adoration which
is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit,
and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated
to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of
the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Mary
- Eschatological Icon of the Church
972 After speaking of the
Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude
than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in
her mystery on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be in
the homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most
Holy and Undivided Trinity," "in the communion of all the
saints," the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of
her Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime the
Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven,
is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to
come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come,
a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God.
In Brief
973 By pronouncing her
"fiat" at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation,
Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish.
She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body.
974 The Most Blessed Virgin
Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and
soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her
Son's Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.
975 "We believe that the Holy
Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise
her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" (Paul VI, CPG §
15).
(Saturday,
6th Week of Easter)
Come. Father of the poor. Come, treasures which endure;
Come, Light of all that live!
The
Gift of Fear
Prayer Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set you, my Lord and God, before my face forever, help me to shun all things that can offend You, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Your Divine Majesty in heaven, where You live and reign in the unity of the ever Blessed Trinity, God world without end. Amen.
Our
Father and Hail Mary ONCE.
Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES.
Act of Consecration, Prayer for the Seven Gifts
Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES.
Act of Consecration, Prayer for the Seven Gifts
Daily Devotions
·
Please
pray for me and this ministry
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